RASC News Agency: Residents of Kabul’s Khair Khana and Panj-Sad Family neighborhoods report that the Taliban have launched extensive house-to-house searches in the area over the past several days. According to sources, three Taliban intelligence operatives were assassinated in these neighborhoods over the past two weeks, prompting a surge in security measures. However, Taliban forces have reportedly struggled to maintain consistent nighttime patrols in Khair Khana and Sarkotal. Sources further confirm that during these door-to-door raids, at least eighteen residents from Khair Khana, Panj-Sad Family, and Sarkotal have been detained and transferred to undisclosed locations. A resident of Khair Khana, speaking to RASC News Agency, corroborated the reports and accused the Taliban of exploiting these operations to settle personal and ethnic scores. He alleged that during the raids, Taliban forces engage in looting private property and committing acts of misconduct.
Meanwhile, residents of Sarkotal in Khair Khana report that Taliban forces, heavily armed, storm homes and subject civilians to harassment. Witnesses claim that the group coerces locals into accepting weapons under duress, arrests targeted individuals, and transfers them to Taliban-run detention facilities. Conversely, a Taliban intelligence operative defended the sweeping searches, stating that their forces in Khair Khana and Sarkotal have repeatedly been targeted in armed attacks, resulting in military casualties. He justified the raids as a necessary measure to curb further insurgent activity in these areas. Notably, these neighborhoods are predominantly inhabited by Tajiks.
The Taliban’s intensified house-to-house searches in parts of Kabul commenced on Saturday, February 22, against the backdrop of growing concerns over ethnic profiling. In recent months, the group has repeatedly conducted rigorous security sweeps in Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbek-populated areas across Kabul and other provinces, leading to the mass detention of civilians.
