RASC News Agency: Reliable sources have confirmed that over the past three years, torture inflicted by the Taliban’s intelligence forces in their prisons has led to the deaths of 87 individuals. These tortures included electric shocks, asphyxiation, waterboarding, and sexual abuse. According to the reports, most of the Taliban’s prisoners comprise former military personnel, members of the National Resistance Front, and social activists opposed to the regime.
On Thursday, August 8, sources revealed to the media that 87 prisoners have succumbed to torture during interrogations conducted by the Taliban’s intelligence services. Sources highlighted that Khalid Hikmat, a former member of the Taliban’s intelligence apparatus with close ties to al-Qaeda, who played a significant role in facilitating Ayman al-Zawahiri’s relocation to Kabul, was directly involved in the torture and killing of detainees.
In one specific case, Golestan, a resident of Kapisa, was arrested two years ago in January and later died under mysterious circumstances in a Taliban prison. Following a petition from his family, it was revealed that Golestan had perished under the torture of Khalid Hikmat, the former head of the Taliban’s 65th Intelligence Directorate. Khalid Hikmat, known for his close association with al-Qaeda, was detained after it was exposed that he had orchestrated Ayman al-Zawahiri’s move to Kabul. However, he was recently released from custody and has since fled to Pakistan.
According to sources, Khalid Hikmat, along with several other Taliban intelligence officials, confessed to executing prisoners, asserting that these individuals were guilty of anti-Emirate propaganda and thus merited death. In response to the rising death toll in Taliban prisons, Abdul Haq Wasiq, the head of Taliban intelligence, launched an informal investigation, which revealed that 87 individuals had died as a result of torture.
Last year, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) conducted an investigation into the conditions of Taliban prisons and published a report on the subject. The United Nations’ office in Afghanistan reported that the Taliban had used methods such as “electric shocks, asphyxiation, extreme pressure, threats, forced water ingestion, physical y, and severe pain and suffering” to extract confessions from detainees.
The Taliban have issued contradictory figures regarding the number of prisoners. Recently, the General Director of Taliban Prisons stated that approximately ten thousand detainees are currently held in Taliban-controlled facilities.
