{"id":9112,"date":"2022-03-23T14:06:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T14:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=9112"},"modified":"2022-03-23T14:06:58","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T14:06:58","slug":"hrw-charges-authorities-with-violation-of-rights-in-helmand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2022\/03\/hrw-charges-authorities-with-violation-of-rights-in-helmand\/","title":{"rendered":"HRW charges authorities with violation of rights in Helmand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MONITORING (SW) &#8211; The Human Rights Watch has charged the Islamic Emirate\u00a0authorities in\u00a0Afghanistan\u2019s Helmand province to have threatened to retaliate against activists and former government officials in response to recent killings of Taliban commanders.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaliban leaders in Helmand should not be responding to attacks with threats of unlawful punishments,\u201d said\u00a0Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cTaliban authorities need to prevent retaliatory attacks and ensure that crimes are dealt with through a proper legal process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Taliban police official in Gereshk, Helmand, told residents that district-level Taliban authorities were calling for retaliation and targeting former government officials. Residents have reported an increase in patrols and night raids, along with warnings from local Taliban officials that mass arrests will ensue if attacks continue. Afghan activists told Human Rights Watch that the Taliban in Helmand have increased their surveillance of individuals and groups they accuse of being \u201copposed to the Islamic Emirate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The threats follow a spate of attacks in which Taliban members have been abducted or killed. Haji Amanullah, 45, a Taliban commander, has been missing since February 14, 2022, when armed men accosted him outside his home in Nawai Bazaar, Gereshk district and forced him to accompany them. Three days later, a letter posted on his door said that Amanullah had been responsible for killing \u201cinnocent and poor people and government officials and had made many mothers cry\u2026 now it\u2019s time for his mother to cry. We have killed him.\u201d His body has not been found.<\/p>\n<p>That week, two local Taliban commanders were found fatally shot in Baba Ji district. In mid-March, the body of a Taliban commander in Gereshk bearing a gunshot wound was found by his relatives behind his house. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.<\/p>\n<p>A local mosque official said that Taliban officials told a gathering that they \u201chave been very patient but eventually some of those who are now working against [us] will be caught and punished.\u201d At the same gathering, a Taliban fighter said that the leadership had cautioned their members not to seek revenge yet, but just to watch because \u201cthe attention of the international community is on us right now\u201d and \u201cMullah Yaqub [the Taliban defense minister] and other leaders have said to wait.\u2026 Only observe those who are acting against [us], particularly those government officials and civil society activists who preach against the [Taliban].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Taliban\u00a0have previously carried out revenge killings\u00a0of former government officials and have forcibly disappeared or summarily executed former members of the security forces and others they accuse of being their enemies. The statements heighten concerns that Taliban fighters in the province could use recent attacks as a pretext to commit abuses against perceived critics, including journalists and activists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Taliban leadership has denied that revenge killings are taking place, but they have a history of such killings and a responsibility to stop their fighters from committing them,\u201d Gossman said. \u201cCountry delegations meeting with the Taliban should press them to prevent their forces from committing further killings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MONITORING (SW) &#8211; The Human Rights Watch has charged the Islamic Emirate\u00a0authorities in\u00a0Afghanistan\u2019s Helmand province to have threatened to retaliate against activists and former government officials in response to recent killings of Taliban commanders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,179,18,17,194,200,393,24,225,5,8,4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soceity","category-economy-business","category-peace","category-security_","category-world","category-democracy-human-rights","category-locality","category-women","category-corruption","category-politics_","category-governance","category-news_","category-afghanistan"],"views":396,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}