U.N.: Taliban Rule Marked by Killings, Boy Soldiers, Arrests

More than 100 former Afghan national security forces and others have been killed since the Taliban takeover in August, most at the hands of the hard-line Islamist group that is recruiting boy soldiers and quashing women’s rights, the U.N. said on Tuesday.

Nada Al-Nashif, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the toll included at least 50 suspected members of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province – an ideological foe of the Taliban – by hanging and beheading.

At least 8 Afghan activists and two journalists have been killed since August, while the U.N. has also documented 59 unlawful detentions and threats to their ranks, she told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. “The safety of Afghan judges, prosecutors, and lawyers – particularly women legal professionals – is a matter for particular alarm”, she added.