Polpress – Human Rights Watch stated on Friday (August 30) in observance of the International Day of the Missing that tens of thousands of people have disappeared in Afghanistan since the 1970s.
In a statement, the organization noted that since the late 1970s, tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan have been arrested and gone missing by state forces or militias.
According to Human Rights Watch, government officials in the past five decades have removed and disappeared all opposing groups.
Human Rights Watch emphasized that enforced disappearance is a serious international crime and that, as long as the fate of the missing persons remains unannounced and their places of detention are unknown, these acts are considered ongoing crimes.
The organization stated that the missing individuals by the Taliban include hundreds of members of the former Afghan government’s security forces and protesting women.
Human Rights Watch warned that there are fears that many former government forces may have been executed in the field after being detained by the Taliban.
This group has repeatedly arrested protesting women and imprisoned them for weeks without contact with their families.
The statement from Human Rights Watch further noted that a list published in 2013 of missing persons after the 1978 communist coup finally allowed families to hold memorial services for their relatives.
