RASC News Agency: Local sources in Jaghori district, Ghazni province, have confirmed the Taliban’s involvement in the extrajudicial killing of a teenage boy and the subsequent mass arrest of his relatives and classmates, in what rights advocates are calling a fresh example of the group’s continued campaign of repression and impunity. According to multiple eyewitness accounts, Taliban forces shot and killed a teenage boy identified as Mahdi near the district center last Wednesday. The Taliban, without offering evidence or due process, accused the boy of being involved in an alleged armed plot against the district administration. Following the incident, the group summoned local elders and claimed that Mahdi had opened fire on a government building and was planning a broader attack. They stated that he was killed while fleeing the scene, and a second unidentified individual allegedly escaped.
However, independent sources on the ground strongly dispute the Taliban’s version of events. Eyewitnesses maintain that Mahdi was unarmed and simply riding a motorcycle near a Taliban checkpoint when he was ordered to stop. Upon failing to halt possibly out of fear he was chased down and shot. Graphic images shared with the media show multiple bullet wounds on his body, raising serious concerns about the use of excessive force and the lack of any credible judicial procedure. In a further act of collective punishment deemed illegal under international law the Taliban arrested at least 12 individuals following the incident. Those detained are reportedly classmates and close relatives of the slain teenager, many of whom are high school students. They were transported to a Taliban-run prison in Ghazni city, where their whereabouts and legal status remain unknown.
In an apparent attempt to prevent public mourning or investigation, Taliban authorities handed over Mahdi’s body to his family with explicit instructions to bury him immediately, without holding a funeral or offering prayers. Human rights organizations have condemned this act as a direct assault on Afghanistan’s cultural and religious practices and an attempt to suppress community solidarity in the face of state brutality. Beyond the immediate tragedy, the Taliban have intensified their surveillance operations in the region. According to sources, residents have been ordered to report all information regarding visitors, guests, or outsiders. Money transfer agents often the only link between families and exiled relatives have been forced to report the details of all incoming foreign remittances to Taliban intelligence, further tightening the noose on civilian life under the group’s rule.
Since their return to power in 2021, the Taliban a group still designated as a terrorist organization by several governments including the United States have consistently violated international human rights norms. The regime’s actions in Jaghori reflect a broader pattern of lawlessness, targeting of ethnic and sectarian minorities, criminalization of dissent, and suppression of civil liberties, particularly in Hazara-populated regions. The United Nations and global human rights watchdogs are being urged to investigate the Jaghori killing and hold Taliban leadership accountable for what appears to be yet another state-sanctioned murder and arbitrary detention campaign.
