Taliban forcing the Hazara farmers to leave their lands

Farmers of the Hazara community living in central Afghanistan are being forced by the Taliban to leave their lands as Pashtun landlords seek to seize their crops and storehouses.

The development is a part of the Taliban’s crackdown on the Hazara community, The Nation reported. Days ago, Mohammad Mohaqeq, a Hazara political leader exiled since the Taliban takeover had also raised the alarm earlier this week.

“More than 800 families had been ordered out of their homes in a remote district straddling the provinces of Daykundi and Uruzgan, southwest of Kabul,” Mohaqeq informed.

Mohaqeq also said that the Taliban ‘eviction order’ was effectively a verdict without a trial, reported The Nation.

Meanwhile, after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, the targeted attacks on the Hazara minority have significantly increased.

Recent estimates have suggested that Hazaras make up around 9 per cent of the population in Afghanistan.

They were once the largest Afghan ethnic group constituting nearly 67 per cent of the total population of the state before the 19th century but more than half were massacred in 1893 when their autonomy was lost as a result of political debacle, Minority Rights informed.

Soon after the Taliban seized much of Afghanistan, the group destroyed and blew up slain Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazari’s statue in Bamiyan, a grim reminder of the destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas during its previous tenure.

Earlier, International organisations have also warned against the atrocities on minority communities.

In desperation, Hazaras have been migrating to neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Iran.