As the Taliban attempts to present themselves as a changed organization, news of their militant fighters hunting down individuals who they suspect have links to the previous Afghan administration have emerged.
The group have "pledged full amnesty for all who worked with the Western-backed, elected Afghan government," but some militants have carried out executions on Western journalists and other workers who remain stranded in Afghanistan.
According to German news outlet Deutsche Welle, a new RHIPTO Norwegian Center for Global Analyses report reveals how the Taliban is "intensifying the hunt-down of all individuals and collaborators with the former regime."
If they are unsuccessful in their mission, the Taliban will refocus their energy on "targeting and arresting family members and punishing them according to Shariah law." Those who are in danger of capture are Afghan military officers, police, and investigative units. The Taliban's campaign involves "targeted door-to-door visits" to find people.
The report also included a four-page letter addressed to an individual who previously worked for the ousted Afghan government who was taken from his apartment in Kabul and detained. He was then questioned for his role as a counter-terrorism official in the fallen Afghan government.
Moreover, the intelligence group's executive director Christian Nellemann believes that those in the Taliban's blacklist will be subjected to torture and execution if they are found.
Among those being tracked down are Western-affiliated journalists. The Guardian reported that the Taliban allegedly executed a family member of an editor working for DW and seriously injured another. DW's director general Peter Limbourg called upon the German government to assist in getting their citizens out of the country.
"The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves," Limbourg said. "It is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organised searches for journalists, both in Kabul and in the provinces. We are running out of time."
On Friday, the New York Times reported that the Taliban has been violently attacking Afghan journalists. The militant group executed 33 year old Amdullah Hamdard, who worked as a translator for U.S. Special Forces and spent the last four years in Afghanistan working for the Die Zeit newspaper, which reported his death by the hands of the Taliban in his home in Jalalabad.
On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that a reporter for a local news agency by the name of Babrak Amirzada and his TV cameraman from another agency were beaten and attacked with batons by the Taliban, who were firing into the air to disperse a crowd of protesters. Reports said that the violence resulted in one death and six injured.
Wesley Morgan, an American journalist still in Afghanistan, took to Twitter to share on Wednesday, "Taliban searching my former interpreter's house (he's hiding out elsewhere and can see it via the app on his phone from his home security cameras)."
The Blaze reported that the increasingly violent Taliban on ground in Afghanistan is in direct contradiction of the latest official statements released by Taliban leaders, including spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, who said during a Tuesday news conference that the group is seeking to "forgive everyone" for the sake of "peace and stability in Afghanistan." He added, "All the groups that were confronting us are all forgiven."
