GENEVA (Reuters) -Nearly 400 civilians have been killed in assaults in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, greater than 80% of them by a gaggle affiliated to Islamic State, a U.N. report exhibits, underscoring the dimensions of the insurgency confronted by the brand new rulers.
It is the primary main human rights report since the Taliban seized energy from the previous U.S.-backed authorities in August, triggering considerations in the West a few broader rollback of rights for ladies, journalists and others.
It covers the interval from August 2021 to the top of February and mentioned that 397 civilians had been killed principally in a sequence of assaults by the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-Okay) group.
More than 50 individuals with suspected ties to the acute militant group had been killed in the identical interval, it mentioned, with some tortured and beheaded and solid by the roadside.
“The human rights state of affairs for a lot of Afghans is of profound concern,” mentioned Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a speech introducing the report back to the highest rights physique in Geneva.
ISIS-Okay, which first appeared in jap Afghanistan in late 2014, is assumed to have unfold in the wake of the Taliban takeover and is blamed for a number of suicide assaults in latest months, together with one at Kabul airport final August.
In the identical speech, Bachelet mentioned that Taliban rulers had curtailed ladies’s rights and freedoms. She known as for ladies to be allowed to “absolutely take part” in public life.
Bachelet additionally referred to “quite a few disturbing instances of enforced disappearances” of activists and protesters and expressed concern about restrictions on freedom of expression.
“I stay involved by the progressive erosion of civic house,” she mentioned.
Under their earlier rule from 1996 to 2001, the hardline Islamist Taliban barred ladies and ladies from schooling. They say they’ve since modified.
The Geneva-based Rights Council is about to nominate a particular rapporteur on Afghanistan to probe alleged violations by Taliban and others on the finish of its present month-long session.
U.S. ambassador Sheba Crocker informed the Council on Monday that this may be an “vital mechanism for documenting abuses” and urged the Taliban to cooperate with its crew.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Gareth Jones and Nick Macfie)
