Stranded people sit around a coffin of their relative, loaded in a pickup truck moving towards the Afghan side at a border crossing point
A recent media report shows that the Taliban is forcing Afghan women to get married to its terrorists. Taliban is swiftly gaining ground in the country by capturing several of its provincial capitals. Afghans are also witnessing the execution of captured soldiers and unprovoked attacks on civilians by the Taliban in its recent captured areas.
Afghans pouring into Kabul and those still in Taliban-held areas say they have witnessed unprovoked attacks on civilians and executions of captured soldiers. In addition, they say, Taliban have demanded that communities turn over unmarried women to become "wives" for their terrorists--a form of sexual violence, human-rights groups say, Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The Taliban had publicly pledged to be magnanimous in victory, assuring government officials, troops and the people of Afghanistan that they have nothing to fear as ever-larger swaths of the country fall under their control. But their actions say otherwise, The Wall Street Journal added.
On Thursday, the US Embassy in Kabul had criticised the Taliban as it had received reports of the Taliban executing members of the Afghan military who had surrendered. "Deeply disturbing & could constitute war crimes," the embassy said on Twitter.
The Taliban has gained control over many key cities in the region, on Thursday night the terror group claimed that it took control of the country's second-largest city Kandahar after seizing the governor's office and other administrative buildings in the city. So far, the terror group has captured 12 provincial capitals in the country.
The terror group is extensively fighting with the Afghan government forces in an attempt to seize key cities and grab power soon after the US forces withdrawal from Afghanistan under a peace deal signed between the Taliban and Washington.
In a recent development, the Taliban have captured another two provincial capitals in southern Afghanistan as they press a lightning offensive that is gradually encircling the government in the capital, Kabul. This time, Helmand province's capital Lashkar Gah was seized by the terror outfit.
(With ANI Inputs)
