Resident in six villages in Kandahar’s Shah Wali Kot district, who have now moved to Kandahar, the provincial capital, claim the Taliban has “forcibly expelled” them from their villages for “cooperating with government”.

The residents also claimed that Taliban had kidnapped at least 70 people living in the district while they were traveling along the Kandahar-Zabul highway three weeks ago.

According to the residents, seven of the abducted victims have been killed, 20 were released and 32 of them are still being held by the Taliban.

“Taliban asked me to share information (about government) with them. I told them that I am not an agent. And then they threatened to kill me and told me to leave my village,” said Abdul Mannan, a resident of the district.

The women said the Taliban had taken their sons by force. 

“Taliban has forcibly taken my son and the sons of others. We came here to the (Kandahar) city by foot. Some of our houses have been taken by the Taliban. We were threatened with death so we came here out of fear,” said Zarghona, another resident of the district.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has confirmed that the Taliban has kidnapped more than 70 residents of Shah Wali Kot district – killing seven of them. The incident happened on Kandahar-Zabul road at least three weeks ago.

“According to our initial information, at least 70 people have been kidnapped and all of them are civilians. This has been done by anti-government armed militants,” said AIHRC acting director in the south, Fakhruddin Fayiz.

“They (kidnappers) have killed seven people and have released some of them. We have some information that a number of the hostages have been freed,” he added.

Local officials in Kandahar have not commented on the report.

Taliban has claimed that they were not involved in the kidnapping.