ISLAMABAD: According to a report released on Tuesday, the Taliban captured, bound, and shot to death 27 men in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley last month during an offensive against local resistance fighters, disproving the group's earlier claims that the men were killed in combat.

Video evidence of reports of murders shows five men with their hands behind their backs and blindfolded. After this the Taliban fighters shouted happily and continued to fire at them for 20 seconds.

According to its researchers, the Afghan Witness Investigation, an open-source project run by the UK-based non-profit Center for Information Resilience, is a rare confirmation of claims that the Taliban have used brutal tactics against opposition forces and their supporters.

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The Taliban have imposed a stricter and more repressive regime since coming to power in August 2021, even as they work to get their government recognized internationally.

According to David Osborne, leader of the Afghan Witness team, the report provides the "most direct example" of the Taliban conducting an "orchestrated purge" of resistance fighters.

An Afghan witness claimed he checked dozens of visible sources from social media, mostly videos and photographs, to link a group of Taliban fighters to the killings of 10 people in Panjshir's Dara district, in which five people were killed in the video. went.

It claimed that additional photos posted on social media, showing all the dead people tied behind their backs, confirmed an additional 17 murders.

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Geolocation and chrono-location were assisted by video and photographs with bodies of Taliban fighters, which also provided close-ups of fighters at the scene. These were compared to additional videos from the group.

According to Osborne, we have established the facts surrounding the summary and systematic execution of a group of men in the Panjshir Valley in mid-September using open-source techniques. The prisoners were bound at the time of execution and there was no danger to the Taliban captives.

According to Inayatullah Khawarzami, spokesman for the Defense Minister on behalf of the Taliban, a delegation is watching a video posted on social media. As the investigation continues, he claimed that he was unable to provide more details.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban-run government, was not immediately available for comment.
The Taliban have reportedly killed 40 resistance fighters and captured more than 100 in Panjshir, according to the Mujahid, it said last month. He made no mention of how the 40 people died.

The last stragglers of Afghanistan's shattered security forces emerged to fight in the remote, mountainous Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, an area that had previously resisted conquest. The Taliban have vowed to oppose the Taliban after the Taliban invaded and took control of the nation in August 2021.

According to Ali Maisam Nazri, head of foreign relations of the National Resistance Front for Afghanistan, the Taliban killed prisoners of war who had surrendered to them, and the videos are proof of this.

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According to an Afghan witness, a Taliban attack against alleged resistance fighters in Panjshir last month resulted in 30 additional deaths.