Taliban executes 13 people in central Afghanistan - Amnesty

Taliban militants killed 13 people of Hazara ethnicity – including 11 former members of Afghan security forces and two civilians - in the central province of Daikundi on August 30, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday.
Nine of the former security personnel were killed even after they surrendered to the Taliban in the Khidir district of the province, the rights organization said.
The two civilians were trying to flee the area, Amnesty said.
The Hazara are Afghanistan's third-largest ethnic group, and one persecuted by the Taliban during its rule in the late 1990s.
"These cold-blooded executions are further proof that the Taliban are committing the same horrific abuses they were notorious for during their previous rule of Afghanistan," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary-general.
The Taliban police chief for Daikundi province denied any extrajudicial killings in the province, Amnesty said. dpa could not reach the Taliban for comment.
The Taliban took control of Daikundi on August 14, after which 34 members of the former Afghan security forces sought safety in Khidir.
Following the takeover of Kabul on August 15, the Taliban announced a general amnesty for all government employees, but since then there have been numerous reports of extrajudicial killings in various parts of the country.