Haqqani Calls Taliban’s General Amnesty “Historic”; A Lie to Cover Up Torture and Killings
- Tamim Attaiy
- Sep 15
- 3 min read
Anas Haqqani, a member of the Haqqani network and a political figure of the Taliban, recently claimed in an interview that with the announcement of a “general amnesty” after the fall of the republic, the Taliban made history and are proud of it. He has asserted that after taking control of Afghanistan, the group established security across the country instead of seeking revenge.
However, existing evidence and documented reports by credible international institutions prove that the Taliban’s general amnesty has in fact been a propaganda cover to conceal the group’s widespread and systematic crimes.
Contradiction Between Claim and Reality
Haqqani said: “Our elders made history with the announcement of a general amnesty… maybe people say that we exaggerate, but a large number of ministers of the republican government, including Hamid Karzai and Dr. Abdullah, are still in Kabul.”
But field realities clearly show that this claim is more a political lie than a historical fact.
International Documentation
UNAMA in its 2023 report wrote:
“Despite the announcement of a general amnesty, the Taliban have carried out hundreds of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings of former military personnel and employees of the republican government.”
The organization’s statistics show that between August 2021 and June 2023 more than 800 serious human rights violations against former security forces and government officials were recorded.
Amnesty International in 2022 stressed:
“The Taliban’s announcement of a general amnesty has been nothing but a propaganda tool. Hundreds of former soldiers have been killed or died under torture, and their families still live in fear and uncertainty.”
Human Rights Watch in December 2022 wrote:
“Across Afghanistan the Taliban have executed dozens of local officials, police officers, and members of the security forces after they surrendered. These crimes are a clear violation of the general amnesty decree.”
Beyond extrajudicial killings, the Taliban have violated their “general amnesty” in even more brutal forms:
Prisons have turned into systematic torture chambers. Survivors have recounted being beaten with electric cables, sticks, and iron rods.
Gang rapes of female civil activists and protesters in prisons have been reported; women who were detained only for protesting or engaging in civil activities.
Journalists have been a particular target of the Taliban; multiple cases of ears being cut off, teeth being broken, psychological torture, and disappearances have been recorded.
In many provinces, the voices of families whose loved ones were executed without trial or disappeared are still being raised.
No One Is Safe
Four years after the fall of the republic, Afghanistan has turned into a vast prison. Today no social group is safe:
Former soldiers are tortured and executed.
Journalists are silenced through physical and psychological violence.
Women protesters are subjected to rape and humiliation.
Civil and political activists are disappeared or imprisoned in dark cells.
Every day from across Afghanistan, new reports of organized and systematic Taliban crimes are heard; crimes that, contrary to the claim of a “general amnesty,” have not only failed to stop but have become part of the governing mechanism of this group.
As a result, it must be said that the Taliban are trying to use the narrative of a “general amnesty” as a political bargaining chip with the international community. But the documentation of international institutions and the testimonies of survivors prove that this decree has been nothing but a historical deception.
The Taliban’s declaration of a general amnesty in practice has turned into a tool of repression; a tool that under the name of “forgiveness” has taken the lives of hundreds of people, left thousands of families in mourning, and kept millions of Afghan citizens in daily terror.
