RASC News Agency: Several government employees working under Taliban-controlled institutions in Panjshir have raised concerns about the abusive behavior of the group’s local officials. On Monday, January 13, they reported that most Taliban-appointed directors in Panjshir’s local offices engage in “demeaning and insulting conduct” toward their subordinates. One employee revealed that Taliban officials treat government workers “as if they were prisoners.” In late December, the Taliban dismissed four employees from two local offices in Panjshir for “liking and commenting” on Facebook posts critical of the regime.
The dismissed individuals were staff members of Panjshir’s Departments of Education and Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock. It is worth noting that the Taliban, driven by ethnic chauvinism, harbor a deep-seated animosity toward the Tajiks and the people of Panjshir. Their occupation of Panjshir, achieved with the support of Pakistan’s intelligence agency and several other terrorist groups, was marked by celebratory displays of triumphalism.
This hostility has its roots in the determined resistance of the Tajiks, particularly the people of Panjshir, during the Taliban’s first reign of terror. The exceptional leadership and legacy of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, the country’s national hero, in spearheading this resistance, have only intensified the Taliban’s resentment. Over the past three years, the Taliban have subjected the people of Panjshir to relentless persecution. They have executed hundreds of young men without cause and have arrested, tortured, and imprisoned over 14,000 young Tajik men from Panjshir under fabricated accusations of collaborating with the National Resistance Front.
