Human Rights Watch says Taliban forcibly displacing Hazara Shias, Taliban reject claims

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Taliban officials have forcibly displaced Hazara Shia communities and distributed their land to their supporters, but the Taliban have rejected these claims, a media report said.

The HRW report on Friday stated that many of these evictions targeted Hazara Shia communities as well as people associated with the former government. The Taliban have termed the report baseless.

"This is not true. Our request from the media and human rights organizations is that if you find such cases, document them. We will be responsive," The Frontier Post quoted Saeed Khosti, Taliban's spokesman for the Interior Ministry as saying.

According to HRW, the Taliban and associated militias forcibly evicted hundreds of Hazara families from the southern Helmand province and the northern Balkh province in the month of October 2021.

Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at HRW, said: "The Taliban are forcibly evicting Hazaras and others on the basis of ethnicity or political opinion to reward Taliban supporters.

Underlining that the evictions were carried out with threats of force and without any legal process, Gossman stressed that these are "serious abuses" that amount to "collective punishment".

( With inputs from ANI )

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