Skip to Main Content

Afghanistan COI Repository

How are people with mental health conditions treated by the Taliban?

Amnesty International (Afghanistan), Afghanistan: Taliban must immediately stop unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests in Panjshir, 16 June 2022

"Zaman Sultani, Amnesty International’s South Asia Researcher, said: “Constantly, reports are coming of arbitrary arrests and unlawful killings of civilians by the Taliban in Panjshir. Events in the last couple of weeks leave little room for doubt that there is a growing pattern of extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests committed by the Taliban… Amnesty International is gravely concerned about reports that those arbitrarily arrested are also facing physical torture and beatings that, in some cases, even resulted in death, as has been reported in the case of Abdul Munir Amini on 4 June”

On 12 June 2022, the Taliban shot dead Murzataza, a resident of Khesa-Awal district of Panjshir who reportedly was also suffering from mental illness. On 4 June 2022, the spokesperson for the Taliban Governor of Panjshir Province in a video statement to the media said that fewer than 40 people were arrested.

In Panjshir the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, an armed group fighting against the Taliban, has strong presence.One of those arrested, Abdul Munir Amini, was reportedly tortured to death.Media reports suggest that a larger number of civilians than admitted by the Taliban have been arbitrarily arrested from various different districts of Panjshir in the past few weeks."

 

Al Jazeera, Now in power, Taliban sets sights on Afghan drug underworld, 11 October 2021

“Now the uncontested rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban has set its sights on stamping out the scourge of narcotics addiction, even if by force.At nightfall, the battle-hardened fighters-turned-policemen scour the capital’s drug-ravaged underworld. Below Kabul’s bustling city bridges, amid piles of garbage and streams of filthy water, hundreds of homeless men addicted to heroin and methamphetamines are rounded up, beaten and forcibly taken to treatment centres.

The Associated Press gained rare access to one such raid last week. The scene provided a window into the new order under Taliban governance: The men – many with mental illness, according to doctors – sat against stone walls with their hands tied. They were told to sober up or face beatings.