Taliban Intensifies Repression in Western Kabul Amid Economic Crisis

Local sources and human rights observers report an increase in systematic and targeted pressure by the Taliban on residents of western Kabul…

Escalating Actions Against Residents

These actions, which include demolishing residential homes, invalidating legal property documents, and arbitrary arrests, are described as part of a strategy to suppress religious and social identities in Afghanistan. Property owners in these areas assert that despite having legal purchase documents, the Taliban have declared their papers invalid and respond to grievances with threats and arrests.

Alongside this crisis, severe economic restrictions have pushed thousands of families into a corner. In what is being termed economic torture, the Taliban have halted operations of about 1,200 passenger vehicles owned by residents of western Kabul. Concurrently, disturbing reports have emerged regarding the religious humiliation of scholars and the arrest of young people under false pretenses in unofficial detention centers. As security forces focus on quelling dissenting voices, the rise in criminal activities and kidnappings in these areas has heightened concerns about the collapse of social security and the deliberate indifference of the ruling regime.