In a new report, Human Rights Watch says that Hazara and other religious minorities have been repeatedly attacked by Islamic State–Khorasan Province (IS-K) and its affiliates in Afghanistan, but the Taliban authorities did little to protect them or provide medical care and assistance.
“Since the Taliban takeover, ISIS-linked fighters have committed numerous brutal attacks against members of the Hazara community as they go to school, to work, or to pray, without a serious response from the Taliban authorities,” Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, is quoted saying in the report, which was released on Tuesday. “The Taliban have an obligation to protect at-risk communities and assist the victims of attacks and their families.”
The report documented that since the Taliban took over “the Islamic State affiliate has claimed responsibility for 13 attacks against Hazaras and has been linked to at least three more, killing and injuring at least 700 people.”
On Saturday, another report by a cross-party group of British politicians, including members of Parliament, warned that the “Hazara in Afghanistan, as a religious and ethnic minority, are at serious risk of genocide at the hands of the Taliban and Islamic State–Khorasan Province.”
The Human Rights Watch report, which is based on the interview of 21 survivors of attacks and family members of victims in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, also notes that the Taliban’s clampdown on media, especially in the provinces, “means additional attacks are likely to have gone unreported.”
Even though the Taliban promised to protect religious minorities, they “do not appear to have provided increased security in Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, and Kunduz provinces, where attacks have killed hundreds of people since January 2022.”
It also warns of a “terrible long-term toll on the survivors and families of victims, depriving them of breadwinners, often imposing severe medical burdens, and restricting their access to daily life.”
