Residents of Ashtarlai district of Daikundi province report that the Taliban stormed a village and forced its inhabitants to leave under threat of further force.
They say that, without warning, more than 300 Taliban gunmen entered the village of Shakhmiran on the night of Wednesday, October 26. They ordered residents to begin leaving the next morning.
“About 360 armed Taliban came to our village at night and told us to leave our houses as soon as possible so that their people can settle there,” a village resident tells Zan Times. The resident, a 66-year-old man, says that the people of this region are extremely poor and cannot even afford to move their family members to another region.
Another village resident confirmed the incident, saying, “From Thursday morning to Friday morning, 12 families have been forced to leave their homes, and the rest are wondering where and how to go.”
In addition, he saw that “the Taliban also broke into the building of an NGO that provides services to malnourished mothers and children. When someone asked why, they beat him.”
The residents of the village say that fear and terror reign among the people, who have few options given the lack of facilities in the area and the cold weather.
Since regaining power in August last year, the Taliban have forcefully displaced non-Pashtun ethnic groups in the central and northern regions of the country. So far, there have been reports of the forced migration of native residents from areas such as Khawaja Bahauddin district of Takhar, Panjshir province, Behsud district in Wardak province, Balkhab district in Sarpul province, and Salang district in Parwan province.
