The Taliban are killing innocent children as they brutally consolidate power, Afghanistan’s former interior minister has claimed.
Masoud Andarabi, who was sacked by the now former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in March, posted shocking photos on Twitter of people, including a small child, who had allegedly been killed by Taliban fighters.
He claimed that the group, who now control nearly all of Afghanistan after dramatically marching into the capital Kabul last week, ‘are trying to rule over people by terrorizing, killing young children and elderly citizens.’
Andarabi added that the Taliban ‘cannot govern the nation’ using such terror methods.
His warning came a day the main resistance group who are continuing to fight the Taliban furiously denied that their surrender was being negotiated.
Ex-Afghan soldiers – many trained by Western troops – have joined forces with local militia from a base in the Panjshir Valley, north-east of Kabul.
The group is fighting under the banner The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan [NRF] and is led by Sandhurst-trained Ahmad Massoud.
The Taliban are killing innocent children as they brutally consolidate power, Afghanistan’s former interior minister, Masoud Andarabi, has claimed as he posted shocking photos of people, including a small child, who had allegedly been murdered by the fighters
Andarabi (pictured), was sacked by the now former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in March
Andarabi added in his tweet: ‘In Andarab, taliban have been carrying out unwarranted searches of homes, capturing people without reason or justification and killing innocent citizens.
‘As a result, people have had to rise against their brutality to protect their lives, honor, dignity and property.’
Andarabi posted the photos after warning in an interview with Indian outlet India Today this week that the resistance to the Taliban’s rule would not go away.
He said: ‘I think there will be backs and pushes and resistance.
‘It shows that if the Taliban do not adjust to today’s Afghanistan, these pocket resistances will keep popping up.
‘The resistance will continue in any form across the country.’
He said that, if the Taliban want people to support their rule and to avoid an ongoing rebellion, they should form an elected government and not an undemocratic ’emirate’.
Andarabi was sacked by the recently-ousted president Ashraf Ghani in March after a spate of Taliban attacks against government troops.
Whilst no official reason was given for his dismissal, a senior security official said at the time that Andarabi had failed to arrest a militia commander whose forces had shot down a helicopter, killing nine members of the security forces.
Andarabi had been tasked weeks before with arresting the commander.
After his post on Tuesday, he was described by Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary as ‘widely respected’.
The shocking new images were posted after chilling reports last week that Islamist militants were stalking cities across Afghanistan for women and girls.
Another image posted by Andarabi showed a dead elderly man whose legs were covered in blood
Jihadist commanders were reportedly ordering imams in areas they have captured to bring them lists of unmarried women aged from 12 to 45 for their soldiers to marry because they view them as ‘qhanimat’ or ‘spoils of war’ – to be divided up among the victors.
Resistance chief Massoud, who also studied at King’s College, London, is nicknamed ‘Heir to the Lion’ or ‘Lion Cub’ after his father, a famed Mujahideen commander known as the ‘Lion of Panjshir’ after the region that he ruled and defended.
The Taliban claimed on Monday that they had retaken three districts north of Kabul capital seized the day before and had surrounded Panjshir, the last province that remains out of their control.
A third image posted by the politician showed a little girl who was alive but had been wounded on her cheek
They said they were negotiating with the rival forces to secure their surrender.
However, Ali Maisam Nazary, the head of foreign relations for the NLF, rubbished the claim on Twitter, saying that ‘no one is going to surrender the Panjshir and @AhmadMassoud01 will defend the valley with all he has.’
His statement came after Massoud wrote in the Washington Post last week: ‘No matter what happens, my mujahideen fighters and I will defend Panjshir as the last bastion of Afghan freedom.’