Taliban rule marked by killings, denial of women’s rights: UN

Taliban fighters stand as they hold a checkpoint in Kabul (REUTERS)

GENEVA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - More than 100 former Afghan national security forces and others have been killed since the Taliban takeover in August, most at the hands of the hardline Islamist group which is recruiting boy soldiers and quashing women’s rights, the U.N. said on Tuesday.
Nada al-Nashif, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that in addition, at least 50 suspected members of a local affiliate of Islamic State known as ISIS-Khorasan - an ideological foe of the Taliban - died by hanging and beheading.

In a speech to the Human Rights Council, she described Taliban rule as being marked by extrajudicial killings across the country and restrictions on women’s and girls’ basic rights.
Families face “severe poverty and hunger” this winter amid reports of child labour, early marriages and “even the sale of children”, al-Nashif said.
At least 72 of the more than 100 alleged killings have been attributed to the Taliban, she said, adding: “In several cases, the bodies were publicly displayed. This has exacerbated fear among this sizeable category of the population.”