UN High Commissioner: Taliban Beheaded & Hanged Dozens, Leaving Bodies on Display to Instill Fear

Members of the insurgent group, which seized power in Afghanistan on 15 August, had earlier pledged that they would not hurt officials and law enforcement personnel who served the previous western-backed regime in Kabul.

Members of the Taliban* killed dozens via beheadings and hangings over the four months that they have been in charge of Afghanistan, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif said in a statement for the UN Human Rights Council.

According to Al-Nashif, over 100 citizens and former members of the Afghan national security forces have been killed since the middle of August, with at least 72 of those killings carried out by the members of the group. At least 50 more victims of Taliban extrajudicial killings are members of Daesh-K** – a splinter group of the notorious terrorist organisation which was responsible for numerous bombings across Afghanistan – including the deadly blast at Kabul airport in August.

"In several cases, the bodies were publicly displayed. This has exacerbated fear among this sizeable category of the population".

Al-Nashif expressed grave concern over the killings in the light of previous promises by the Taliban to refrain from exerting revenge against workers in the previous Western-backed regime.

She said that eight Afghan activists and two journalists have also been killed since the Taliban came to power on 15 August. The UN deputy high commissioner further noted that 59 unlawful detentions and threats to journalists and activists have currently been registered. Al-Nashif also reported the group as recruiting "child soldiers" and limiting women's basic rights.

"The safety of Afghan judges, prosecutors, and lawyers - particularly women legal professionals - is a matter for particular alarm".

Taliban spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti rejected the report by the UN deputy high commissioner, insisting that it was poorly substantiated. Khosti stated that the killings were not the result of Taliban revenge against former workers, but a result of "personal rivalries and enmities".

The insurgent group, which seized power within months after the US announced its withdrawal from Afghanistan, promised not to harm members of the security forces if they gave up their weapons, although numerous media reports suggest that they did the opposite. The Taliban earlier urged all officials - regardless of gender - in the previous regime to return to their duties after the seizure of Kabul. The insurgent group promised to build an inclusive government, but in its current form, there are no women in any positions of responsibility.

*The Taliban is an organisation under the UN sanctions over terrorist activities

**Daesh-K (also known as ISIS-K or the Islamic State-Khorasan Province) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia