'A Mark of the Taliban': Western-Allied Afghans Reportedly Receive 'Surrender or Die Night Letters'
07:43 GMT 31.08.2021 (Updated: 13:23 GMT 06.08.2022)
© REUTERS / STRINGER
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Earlier in August, the Taliban* pledged they wouldn't seek revenge against government officials or those Afghan soldiers the militant group has fought over the past two decades.
Taliban militants are pinning so-called "night letters" on the doors of those accused by the group of "working for the crusaders" in Afghanistan, urging them to surrender or die, the Daily Mail has cited several sources as saying.
One of the sources, only identified as Naz, told the newspaper that the letter he received "was official and stamped by the Taliban".
"It is a clear message that they want to kill me. If I attend the [Taliban-convened] court, I will be punished with my life", the 34-year-old father of six added.
His construction company helped the UK military build roads in Helmand Province and the runway at Britain's Camp Bastion. In the letter, the Taliban called him a "slave" of NATO forces who had ignored warnings to stop working with the alliance.
Afghan Taliban militants and villagers attend a gathering as they celebrate the peace deal and their victory in the Afghan conflict on US in Afghanistan, in Alingar district of Laghman Province on March 2, 2020
© AFP 2023 / NOORULLAH SHIRZADA
Naz was ordered to "present" himself to the court otherwise it would be "forwarded to the Sharia Court of Appeal where the judgment of death penalty will be passed in your absence", the letter reportedly read, adding, "this would be the path you have chosen for yourself".
The 34-year-old said "the message of night letters is clear: you must comply or die". According to him: "We [his family] have moved but we can't keep moving. We must escape".
He was echoed by another source named Shir who told the Daily Mail that his daughter found a letter on the door "with a nail in it".
"It instructed me to surrender myself for the judgment of the court of the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] or they would act like hunters to find me. They would then kill me", Shir said.
Taliban forces block the roads around the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan August 27, 2021.
© REUTERS / STRINGER
"It is a letter of fear, a warning, a threat to you and your family. You must bow to the Taliban orders or make sure you are not caught. I thought I would escape on a British flight and was called three times to the airport but could not make it through the people. Now I am trapped and people have seen the letter on my door. It is a mark of the Taliban on my family", the 47-year-old added.
A traditional Afghan method of intimidation, "night letters" are often used by the Taliban in rural communities as both a propaganda tool and a threat. It appears the tendency changed after the militant group came to power in Afghanistan in mid-August, and the letters are now being widely circulated in cities.
At a first Taliban news conference in Kabul on 17 August, spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid promised that "nobody will be harmed in Afghanistan" as he announced a general "amnesty" for those "compatriots" who had previously served as interpreters or in the military and civilian sectors.
"We don't want to take revenge on anyone. Nobody is going to knock on their door to inspect them", Mujahid emphasised.
Shortly after, however, The Washington Post cited a secret threat assessment for the UN as claiming that the Taliban had stepped up their hunt for US and NATO collaborators, going house to house and threatening the relatives of Afghan security officials.
*The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.
