Nothing changed between Taliban of 1990s and 2021: Report

Kabul: More than a month has passed since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan but the state of affairs in the troubled country doesn't appear to be any different from what was witnessed in the 1990s.

In an interview with Washington based outlet NPR, veteran Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi has refuted the claims that the new government in Afghanistan is "moderate" in any way.

Quraishi on Thursday that nothing has changed from how the outfit ruled that country in the 1990s.

"I don't know why they promised ... that they're going to be moderate, but I don't think so," Quraishi told NPR. "According to what I'm noticing, what I'm witnessing here in Afghanistan, they are the Taliban. There is nothing changed between the Taliban in the '90s and between the Taliban in 2021."

According to Quraishi, the Taliban have reinstated harsh punishments in the country.

Kabul fell to the Taliban in August and since then people are in a state of terror with increasing cases of human rights abuses being reported from several parts of the country.

Recently, the United Nations and other rights groups have received harrowing and credible reports of the impact on civilians of violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of human rights.

Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, including a 17-year-old girl, in Afghanistan's Daykundi province, a rights group said earlier this week.

The killings happened in Kahor village of Khidir district on 30 August. Eleven of the victims were former members of the Afghan National Defence Security Forces (ANDSF), and two were civilians, a new investigation by Amnesty International has revealed.

According to eyewitness testimony gathered by Amnesty International, the Taliban extrajudicially executed nine of the ANDSF members after they had surrendered, killings that appear to be war crimes. Two civilians were killed as they attempted to flee, including a 17-year-old girl shot when the Taliban opened fire on a crowd of people.

The rights group verified photographs and video evidence taken in the aftermath of the killings, and identified the location of Kahor village, where they happened.

"These cold-blooded executions are further proof that the Taliban are committing the same horrific abuses they were notorious for during their previous rule of Afghanistan," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary-General.

"They repeatedly violate the rights of those they perceive as their adversaries, even killing those who have already surrendered. The Taliban say they are not targeting former employees of the previous government, but these killings contradict such claims," Callamard said.