Guaranteed immunity or silent threat? Return of former officials amid security concerns

DID Press: While the Commission for Contact with Afghanistan figures announced that more than 200 former government officials have returned to the country and been issued immunity cards, concerns about the safety of these individuals persists.

According to the official announcement of the commission, the returning officials include political and administrative figures of the former government who have been pardoned within the framework of the Taliban caretaker government’s policy of “encouraging the return of elites” to the country. Security forces, police, district governors, and governors do not have the right to prosecute or detain them.

However, reports published in Western media such as the Daily Mail and the Telegraph indicate that cases of detention, torture, and even killing of former military personnel have been recorded in various provinces of the country; issues that have seriously questioned the credibility of the Taliban government’s commitment to “general amnesty.”

In this context, Nasir Ahmad Faiq, Afghanistan’s representative to the UN, wrote on his X account: “How can we trust the Taliban’s claim of ensuring security, peace, and general amnesty, when arbitrary detentions, inhuman torture, and targeted killings of former soldiers continue unabated?”

He also considered the killing of unarmed and non-combatants not only contrary to Islamic teachings, but also a clear violation of international humanitarian law and human conscience. “The Taliban cannot rule with cruelty, injustice, the killing of innocents, hostility to science and culture, depriving women and girls of their basic rights, and creating an atmosphere of terror and terror,” he underlined.

On the other hand, British Ministry of Defense had previously admitted that the personal information of a number of former Afghanistan soldiers who had cooperated with coalition forces in the past had been unintentionally disclosed; This issue, which observers believe could be one of the main reasons why these individuals were identified and targeted by the Taliban.

In such circumstances, although issuing immunity cards to returning officials is seen as a step towards reducing concerns, the continued reports of violent encounters with former forces have seriously questioned this immunity and security in practice