From every seized province, Taliban takes young girls as sex slaves: Report

The Taliban may have publicly pledged generosity-for-all but as they rapidly take one province after another — the latest being the country’s second-largest city Kandahar — reports and eyewitness accounts tell a different story, a tale of a ruthless power-hungry group.

The terror group, according to a WSJ report, has demanded that locals turn over unmarried women or girls to become “wives” for Taliban commanders—a form of sexual violence, human-rights groups say. The Taliban reportedly asked for the names and ages of girls and women to be married off to their fighters.

Thousands, who have flooded into the national capital Kabul in recent days as the Taliban overrun cities and entire provinces, say they have witnessed unprovoked attacks on civilians and executions of captured soldiers.

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The US Embassy in Kabul said on Thursday that it had received reports of the Taliban group executing members of the Afghan military who had surrendered or were captured. “Deeply disturbing & could constitute war crimes,” the embassy said on Twitter.

The Taliban have so far captured 12 provincial capitals in the country. On Thursday night, the terror group captured Kandahar after seizing the governor’s office and other administrative buildings in the city.

As United States troops’ date for completion of exit from the country approaches, the extremist group has been fighting with the Afghan government forces in an attempt to grab power.

The Taliban, however, has denied all the ‘allegations’. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that no prisoner was killed. He also said allegations that the Taliban was forcing women into marriage were false, and that this move would be contrary to the rules of Islam.

Earlier this week, Mawlawi Abdul Qadir, a senior Taliban religious official, said that government soldiers who surrender and “confess their crimes” would be able “to live like a Muslim under the flag of the Islamic Emirate.”

In the deal struck between the Trump administration and the Taliban, the US agreed to withdraw its forces without specifying any human-rights standards for the Taliban to follow. The group, however, promised to seek a peaceful settlement and a negotiated cease-fire with the Afghan government.

More than 1000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in the past month, according to the United Nations.