Tensions flare as Ghor residents confront Taliban forces

Clashes in Pasaband district

On 26 October 2024, 8am Media reported that residents of Pasaband district, Ghor province, had clashed with Taliban forces who attempted to destroy drug production facilities. On the same day, the Afghanistan International news outlet alleged that locals of the same district had been protesting Taliban house searches and mistreatment of women, and that Taliban forces had used violence in response. Both sources claim that six civilians were wounded as a result. 

Footage shared by a local shows a crowd of people gathered in Sinay (Figure 1 below), on the outskirts of Pasaband district, positioned opposite a likely Taliban outpost (white rectangle) where several armed men are positioned, facing an approaching crowd of people. The outpost appears to have a white flag on its rooftop, to the east of the clearing. 

AW identified at least ten individuals guarding the outpost, and approximately 150-200 individuals, who appear to be locals, gathered to the west of it. One of the armed individuals is positioned on a rooftop by the outpost’s east [marked in red ellipse], and is shown shooting eight rounds at the crowd, possibly in an effort to disperse them and stop them from advancing. The smoke from the gunfire is visible in the footage (marked in grey cloud shapes).

In a separate video released later in the day by Afghanistan International, a man, reportedly wounded during the Taliban shooting, is shown with a bandaged hand and an attached bag of blood - likely a blood transfusion bag - while being assisted by others, seemingly near the area of the incident in Pasaband district. Background conversation in the video suggests that the injured man is one of the protestors wounded in Sinay.

Pasaband district is located in southernmost Ghor and has a population of 92,000. According to a district profile by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 2003, 85% of the population in Pasaband are Tajik, 11% Pahstun and 5% Hazara. AW verified that the people in the video from Sinay were speaking in Dari, indicating that they could belong to non-Pashtun, Dari-speaking groups (Tajik or Hazara).

Clashes in Shahrak district

In a similar incident, locals reportedly clashed with the Taliban in Shahrak district, located in northwestern Ghor province. On 1 November 2024, Paigah News reported that residents of Yamgak village of Tangi Azao area in Shahrak district, aggravated by alleged Taliban raids of residential houses, clashed with Taliban forces, and beat and disarmed some Taliban. 

In a video allegedly recorded by a resident of Tangi Azao, an alleged group of Taliban forces are seen retreating as a crowd of residents attack them with sticks. A male voice, likely a village resident, is heard calling on villagers “not to let a single [Taliban] leave the village”. He shouts at the group of apparently retreating Taliban, saying, “Do not dare to enter our houses again”. 

In another video recorded from a distance further away,  gunshots and sirens from at least two military vehicles can be heard, as people including children disperse in different directions. AW verified the presence of one dark green Ford Ranger pickup car, a vehicle predominantly used by Taliban police, in the area of the incident.

Local sources told Azadi Radio on 2 November 2024 that the Taliban had subsequently arrested 30 residents, including children from Tangi Azao village, after a clash with the villagers. At the time of writing, the Taliban has yet to issue a statement regarding the incident.

Conflicting claims about causes

While the incidents happened in two separate locations in different parts of the province and took place at least one week apart, both relate to claims that local residents were angered by alleged Taliban raids of residential properties. Multiple locals also claimed that Taliban used violence and mistreated women during the alleged search operations. 

Afghanistan International reported that the incident in Pasaband district occurred after locals were outraged about the Taliban carrying out individual searches of women. In a video from Pasaband district, also shared by Afghanistan International, people are shown expressing their anger by chanting “Allahu Akbar” [God is great]. Among the voices audible in the crowd, a man is heard saying that they (the local people) were not harassed as badly by even the Soviets or the Americans in the past, as they are now by the Taliban. 

In Tangi Azao, Porana News reported on 2 November 2024 that residents of the village had clashed with the Taliban forces after they had allegedly beaten a woman during a house search. The report further claimed that a Taliban commander known as Wasiq and his forces had entered homes and used violence against residents. 

Alleged Taliban counternarcotics efforts

8am Media claimed that the clash in Pasaband district took place on 26 October 2024, when the Taliban destroyed ephedra (a plant used as a precursor in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine) processing facilities in the area. On 27 October 2024, Azadi Radio reported that Abdul Wahid Hammas, Taliban spokesperson for the Governor of Ghor, claimed that Taliban forces had raided drug production facilities and arrested an unspecified number of individuals, when they came under fire from local residents. Hammas argued that the Taliban forces had to defend themselves, and fired at the “rebels” in response. AW could not verify Abdul Wahid Hammas’ claims. 

While the Taliban have not made further official statements on the clashes in Ghor, the Taliban’s Deputy Ministry for Counternarcotics and several Taliban-affiliated media outlets circulated several reports on the seizure and destruction of a variety of drugs and several narcotics processing factories in Ghor between 26 October and 5 November 2024. This is likely an indirect attempt by the Taliban to reinforce the idea that the clashes were triggered by resistance to counternarcotics efforts.

There are past examples of violent resistance to Taliban counternarcotics operations. Locals in several districts of Badakhshan, for example, clashed with the Taliban in May 2024 when Taliban attempted to destroy local poppy fields.

Claims of ethnically or personally motivated violence by the Taliban

Residents of Tangi Azao further told Paigah News that on 31 October 2024, the day before the alleged clashes, Taliban members had torn up pictures of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a former prominent anti-Taliban commander, and Dr Ibrahim Malikzada, a Tajik local former MP and anti-Soviet commander, during house raids. On 2 November 2024, Mahmoud Saikal, former Afghan Ambassador to the UN, quoting local sources, claimed that the Taliban had entered people’s houses in Shahrak district twice in a single day “with personal motives” but under the pretext of house searches. 

AW could not verify these allegations, although - as noted above - residents featured in the videos were Dari speaking, indicating they belong to non-Pashtun ethnic groups. 

Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, there have been numerous clashes between ethnic groups in Ghor province. For example, in October 2023, Tajik and Pashtun Taliban members reportedly clashed in the provincial capital Firozkoh (also known as Chaghcharan) over arbitrary arrests carried out by the latter.