Suspected Taliban militants kidnap 17 Shias in northern Afghanistan, locals say
Suspected Taliban militants have kidnapped at least 17 people from the Shia Hazara community traveling in vehicles in northern Afghanistan, local officials say.
Zabihullah Amani, spokesman for the governor of Sar-e-Pol Province, said Thursday that Hazara Shia Muslims were pulled out of their vehicles in the remote district of Sancharak.
Amani said relevant authorities have already sent local people to Taliban commanders for mediation and the release of the abducted people.
"The passengers, all our Hazara brothers, were travelling towards the city center when their van was stopped by the Taliban and taken away," said Amani, adding, "We have launched an operation to free them but it didn't help, so now the elders are trying to free them."
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but the remote area is under the control of the Taliban.
The kidnapping happened a day after a Taliban commander in the area was detained by Afghan forces during a clash.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Noor Rahmani, head of the provincial council, said the Taliban perhaps would seek to free civilians in exchange for the militant commander. "The Taliban may have abducted the passengers to exchange them with their local commander."
This is the second mass abduction over the past week in the troubled northern Afghanistan.
On May 31, Taliban militants ambushed three buses in Kunduz Province, killing 19 and taking away dozens of others, among them police personnel.
In November 2015, several Shia Muslims from the Hazara minority were killed by suspected Taliban militants in Zabul Province.
The fresh assaults follow last week’s selection of Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada as the new leader of the Taliban.
According to a recent report by Amnesty International, at least 1.2 million Afghans have been internally displaced due to violence in the past three years.
Estimates show that about 200,000 people have been killed in less than three decades of Taliban militancy in Afghanistan.
The government in Kabul has undertaken a series of initiatives for peace with the group, although fighting continues unabated across the country.
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