World News | UN Report: Widespread Torture of Detainees in Afghan Prisons
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Nearly a third of all detainees held in Afghan detention centers say they have suffered some form of torture or ill-treatment, a new U.N. report said Wednesday.
Kabul, Feb 3 (AP) Nearly a third of all detainees held in Afghan detention centers say they have suffered some form of torture or ill-treatment, a new U.N. report said Wednesday.
According to the “Torture Report,” more than half of the allegations are from southern Kandahar province, a Taliban heartland. The United Nations expressed serious concerns about the claims, including allegations of “enforced disappearances.”
For the report, conducted jointly by the U.N. mission to Afghanistan and the U.N. Human Rights Office, U.N. officials interviewed a total of 656 detainees, held in 63 government facilities across the country, between January 2019 and March 2020.
The alleged torture included beatings, suffocation, and electric shocks. The U.N. says 30 per cent of those interviewed provided “credible and reliable” accounts of abuse and mistreatment.
Afghan officials did not immediately respond to Associated Press calls for comment on the U.N. report. Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, U.N. visits to the detention facilities were suspended last March.
The US-backed Afghan government is holding thousands of detainees, many of them captured as part of the ongoing war with the Taliban, who are mainly ethnic Pashtun.
The Taliban have stepped up their offensive, making major gains in recent years, and now effectively control over half the country. Separately, widespread corruption and distrust of the government has undermined efforts to combat the Taliban.
The insurgents, meanwhile, have been demanding the release of thousand more Taliban prisoners, under a deal signed between the Taliban and the U.S. government last year that saw 5,000 insurgents freed. The U.S.-Taliban deal aims to end the decades-long war and facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. and international troops from Afghanistan. The Biden administration has said it plans to review the U.S.-Taliban deal. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)