The Taliban pulled out the nails and teeth of four teenagers and forced them to confess.
National Resistance Front, Kunduz; Hundreds of health workers and vaccinators have been assassinated, tortured and killed by the Taliban over the past 20 years. According to the United Nations’ latest report, which covers the three months after the Corona Virus pandemic in Afghanistan, the Taliban has carried out 10 attacks on health workers in different parts of Afghanistan, abducting 23 health workers in six provinces.
This report is just a small part of the group’s crimes against health workers. In the latest case, the group shot eight vaccinators, including four women, in Takhar and Kunduz provinces 20 days ago. The Taliban killed the vaccinators while administering the polio vaccine in the provinces.
The group claims to have arrested four perpetrators of the killing and has sentenced them to death the four adolescents aged 16 to 18.
The Taliban detained these children and adolescents for various reasons and have been forced to confess under duress. The torture has been so severe — the Taliban have cut off the nails and pulled out the teeth.
The group seeks to cover up its crimes by executing these young boys, while the killing of innocent people by the Taliban over the past 20 years shows the group’s crimes and pessimism towards social workers, human rights activists and health workers.
The execution of these children and adolescents aged 16 to 18, is a crime.
Family members of these innocent children and adolescents claim that the detained young boys were “forced to confess”, undergoing torture and coercion.
Their relatives say that the young boys are innocent and willing to appear and be judged by the law in a “fair and free” court.
The Taliban have no evidence that these adolescents were involved in killing vaccinators, but the group’s background is evidence of their bloodthirstiness.
According to Islamic norms and teachings, the confession of a criminal and the testimony of two impartial men are the requirements of retribution for the murderer, but in the arrest and execution of the sentence, none of the elements of Islamic retribution and legal components and human rights values are considered.
The mother of one of the teenagers says that her son was forced to confess under torture. According to her, her teenage son has nothing to do with the killings.
The mother of another accused also says that her child is innocent and has no animosity towards these vaccinators. She calls for justice and emphasises that his child should not be tried unfairly using forced confession.
The Red Cross and dozens of other Aid agencies have repeatedly suspended operations in Afghanistan in recent years due to the killing of their staff by the Taliban, and international organisations have repeatedly urged members of the group not to interfere with humanitarian activities. However, the group’s hostility to civilian aid workers has led to more deaths in the Taliban-held provinces than in any other province or city.
Needless to say, the group that left thousands of people dead in more than twenty years and dragged innocent people to the ground and blood — the maternity hospital and the universities were not spared from their bloodthirstiness; how can they now speak of justice.
