Islamabad – The Afghan Taliban has been accused of breaching its own highly-publicized general amnesty, after five ex-Afghan army personnel were arrested in Parwan province.
All of the detainees were members of a single family based in Panjshir and were said to have been arrested on Thursday while traveling home after being forcibly deported from Iran.
The five men were all military officers under the previous Afghan government. These were recognized to be Colonel Sheram Ullah, Gul Badin, Aleem, Jan Muhammad, and Suleiman. The family consists of two biological brothers, their nephew, and two cousins, all belonging to the Ravi Dara region of the Shuttle district in Panjshir.
Amnesty Broken, Bribery Alleged
Since coming to power in August 2021, the Taliban government has declared a general amnesty for former government opponents and military personnel. Sources allege that this promise is being continually disregarded.
It has been reported that the Taliban government is actively arresting and, in certain instances, killing former forces, usually on the pretext that they are members of other resistance groups such as the National Resistance Front (NRF) and Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF).
The motive in the recently arrested family seems to be purely financial. The family had been detained, sources said, because they could not pay a demand of 100,000 Afghanis (about 1400 dollars) each to a local Taliban commander in Parwan. Being unable to pay the bribe, they were arrested on the pretext that they had connections to NRF. They are reportedly sent to the GDI (General Directorate of Intelligence) facility in Panjshir.
A Region Under Siege
The arrests demonstrate a serious, continuing trend of violence and detention in Panjshir, historically a resistance-to-Taliban region. Security monitoring organizations have reported that since the Taliban took over in August 2021, at least 15,543 people have been arrested or disappeared in Panjshir alone.
The human toll is devastating as 543 deaths have been confirmed, with thousands more still missing. Arrests intensified sharply throughout 2025, and authorities are reportedly constructing a new prison in Bazarak district to accommodate the growing number of detainees.
The crackdown extends far beyond former military or resistance members, affecting ordinary civilians, including teachers, doctors, and journalists. In one disturbing instance, six young people were detained simply for collecting grass from the mountains.
Among the prominent people arrested and accounted for in the ongoing violence are Dr. Sahib Khan Mirza from Dare district, taken from his clinic on January 13, 2025, Mujeeb and Najmuddin from Tankhu neighbourhood, former guards of Vice President Abdullah Abdullah, who had surrendered; Saifuddin Shafazada from Khanj district, a former police officer who surrendered but went missing in February 2025, Abdul Mateen, Abdul Rauf, and Abdul Shakoor from Abdullah Khel district, executed by firing squad in July 2025, with one being a former judge accused of funding the NRF.
