Taliban return to brutal ways as they whip and torment ‘thief’
Taliban fighters are shown whipping a terrified Afghan man with a rubber cable as he says he would rather die than be tortured.
One of the militants sits on top of the victim, who has been apprehended in the country’s southern Kandahar Province, and accuses him of being a thief as he is forced to confess to the crime.
He pleads ‘don’t torture me, just kill me’ as he is humiliated in a public punishment, which has been highlighted as an example of the brutality being meted out by the nation’s new rulers, despite their claims to have adopted a more tolerant approach.
The images stoke fears that the Taliban are returning to their draconian former ways despite pledging to become more inclusive after seizing power in August as the UK and US completed their withdrawal.
The man is also shown with one of his tormentors’ feet in his face and being hit with the length of rubber as he flinches from the blows.
Counter-terrorism expert Ajmal Sohail said: ‘The Taliban said they would change their mindset but this shows they have returned to their old ways.
‘They promised a new narrative but they are continuing with their brutality.
‘They pledged an amnesty for people who worked for the previous government but, according to my information and sources, they are rounding up people who worked for the Afghan National Army and security forces on the pretext that they have committed petty crimes.
‘The reality is that they are arrested, taken away and never heard of again.’
Mr Sohail is an exiled former Afghan secular politician who has been granted asylum in Germany, where he leads a political group, the Afghanistan Republicanism Salvation Front
He said: ‘The man in the video is pleading, “don’t torture me, just kill me”, but the Taliban are just laughing at him. He knows he’s going to die. He’ll be taken away, tortured and killed, that’s it.
‘The Taliban shot the video for propaganda but they need to know that the international community is watching their movements and they are committing these crimes in front of the entire world.’
The Taliban struck an ominous note for human rights last month when they said they would resume executions and amputations of hands in a throwback to their harsh 90s rule, although this time behind closed doors.
In Kabul, the hardline movement has restored the punishment of public shaming for men accused of petty theft.
However, the man shown in the clip has not been heard of again, Mr Sohail said. Many far more grizzly videos, purportedly showing the bodies of murdered political and military targets of the Taliban, are also circulating on social media.
A UK delegation did secure a breakthrough today when a former British soldier arrested by the Taliban was released and flown out of the country.
Ben Slater, who ran Nomad Concepts Group from Kabul, was detained while helping hundreds of Afghans to leave the country.
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