Taliban detains Panjshiris amid crackdown on resistance

The Taliban have continued to carry out allegedly politically motivated arrests of people from Panjshir province over the past 12 months, an AW analysis indicates. Such arrests – likely targeting people suspected of involvement in the armed resistance to the Taliban – have peaked at various times throughout 2024, apparently in response to security incidents.

In January 2025, AW furthermore recorded 14 allegedly politically motivated arrests of people from Panjshir (all men), an increase from three the previous month. Seven were arrested in Panjshir, all in the province’s Dara district, which has been the focus of recent Taliban anti-resistance operations (see below). The others were detained in Kabul (5) and Kapisa (2) provinces.

According to media reports, five of those arrested were former members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). Others included a former advisor to the former Chief Executive of the Republic, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, one civil society activist, one teacher, one manager of a religious school in Kabul, a doctor affiliated with the humanitarian aid organisation Emergency, and a tailor.

Separately, 8am Media reported that the Taliban had carried out 57 politically motivated arrests of Panjshiris in the province throughout January 2025, although AW could not independently verify the claim.

The Taliban carried out 138 politically motivated arrests of people from Panjshir (all men) between 1 January 2024 and 30 January 2025, according to AW’s monitoring of public sources. The highest number of arrests took place in October 2024, when 23 individuals were reportedly detained, mainly in Dara district where the National Resistance Front (NRF) claimed an attack on 4 October 2024.

According to NRF, the attack targeted the headquarters of the 3rd Brigade, 4th Battalion of the special brigade of the Ministry of Defense in the village of Mohammad Baig Khel, killing and injuring 15 Taliban members. Abidullah Uqab Farooqi, the Spokesperson of the Taliban police in Panjshir, however posted through X (formerly Twitter) that six people had been injured in a gas cylinder explosion at a Dara guest house on 4 October, without mentioning an attack.

The Dara incident marked the second alleged NRF attack in Panjshir after a year-long hiatus, when the group shifted its focus to Taliban targets in urban areas, mostly Kabul. The first claimed NRF attack took place in the Hese-Awal district on 29 September 2024, reportedly leaving two dead and three injured.

Media reports indicate that the Taliban have ramped up detentions in Dara since 4 October, while AW’s own monitoring also shows that arrests in Panjshir province have since predominantly occurred in the district. Out of 18 alleged politically motivated detentions in Panjshir between October 2024 and January 2025, 16 occurred in Dara.

In a report published in June 2023, Amnesty International accused the Taliban of committing the war crime of collective punishment in Panjshir, including by carrying out mass arbitrary arrests of men and boys suspected of ties to the armed resistance. Amnesty International also documented extrajudicial executions and torture and other forms of ill-treatment by the Taliban.

An earlier AW investigation, published in October 2022, verified how Taliban had extra-judicially killed 27 people affiliated with resistance forces in Panjshir.

In a related development, the Taliban in October 2024 reportedly announced the construction of a new prison worth AFN 12.9 million (approx. GBP140,528) in the Bazarak district of Panjshir, which media outlets reported had triggered fear among residents of a new wave of arbitrary arrests..

Arrests in Panjshir of individuals with ANDSF background and immigration to Iran

Five of the 14 individuals from Panjshir detained by the Taliban in January 2025 were reportedly former members of the ANDSF. Similarly, the report by 8am Media on arrests in Panjshir in January 2025 (mentioned above) claimed that most of those detained were associated with the ANDSF.

It is notable that three of the five detained former ANDSF members had either returned or been deported from Iran before their arrests. AW has previously highlighted how the Taliban have targeted former ANDSF members for detention after returning from Iran.

In February 2024, a former Afghan security official claimed on X that Iranian authorities had agreed to hand over former Afghan security personnel to the Taliban, per an official security agreement. Furthermore, in March 2024, Afghanistan International reported that the Iranian government had initiated a census to collect information on ANDSF members residing in Iran, raising safety and security concerns for these individuals.

Remarks

AW’s monitoring indicates that individuals from Panjshir continue to be detained both within the province and in other areas of the country, particularly in Kabul. The recent increase in detentions seems to be linked to an attack in the Dara district in early October 2024, which the NRF claimed responsibility for.

Although the Taliban do not officially acknowledge resistance attacks and tend to downplay the extent of such activities, the measures they are taking – including security raids, mass detentions, and inspections to capture members of the resistance – indicate that the de facto authorities are actively continuing efforts to suppress the armed resistance.