The United Nations says the Taliban in Afghanistan is looking for people who worked with NATO forces from house to door

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A United Nations document warns that the Taliban are conducting a house-to-door search for people who worked with NATO forces or the former Afghan government.

The militants have stepped up the hunt for “individuals and collaborators” who worked with the previous administration and are threatening family members if they cannot find their targets, according to a classified document released by the Norwegian Center for Global Analytics RHIPTO, a group that provides intelligence. to the United Nations.

“Individuals at particular risk are in central positions in the military, police and investigative units,” the report stated.

The threat to the people blacklisted by the Taliban comes despite the Islamist group announcing a “general amnesty” for people across the country after they came to power by forcibly seizing Kabul on Sunday.

The Islamists had said they would not seek “revenge” against the former opponents and that all would “be forgiven,” in comments he made during their first press conference since seizing power on Tuesday. The group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told reporters that the group did not seek “internal or external enemies”.

Christian Nelemann, who led the team behind the report, told BBC News: “There are a large number of individuals currently being targeted by the Taliban and the threat is crystal clear.

“Unless they turn themselves in, the Taliban will arrest, try, interrogate and punish family members on behalf of those individuals, unless they turn themselves in,” he added.

Neliman warned of the possibility of mass executions of anyone on the Taliban blacklist.

It comes as tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with Western forces and foreigners are still stuck in Kabul, with only the capital’s main airport still under US and NATO control.

Efforts are continuing for the rapid evacuation of individuals at risk, but these efforts are hampered by Taliban checkpoints on the roads to the airport. While those with US passports are generally allowed to pass, Afghan nationals in particular are being turned back.

There are growing concerns among Afghans who have worked with foreign forces. Nearly 300 Afghan translators and their relatives were killed by militants before Afghanistan fell under Taliban control, according to the non-profit organization No One Left Behind.

More than 18,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, a NATO official said on Friday, adding that they would redouble evacuation efforts.

About 6,000 others, including Afghan interpreters, are still on standby to be driven out of the country by Friday, the official said.

The White House said Friday that about 9,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul since August 14, with 3,000 evacuations on Thursday alone.

Meanwhile, German public radio Deutsche Welle reported that Taliban fighters shot and killed a DW journalist while searching for him.

The gunmen were running a house-to-house search for the journalist, who now works in Germany.

A second relative was seriously injured but others managed to escape, according to DW.

Director General of German Radio, Peter Limburg, said: “The killing of a close relative of one of our editors at the hands of the Taliban yesterday is unimaginably tragic, and testifies to the grave danger faced by all our staff and their families in Afghanistan themselves.

“It is clear that the Taliban are already conducting organized searches for journalists, both in Kabul and the provinces. Time is running out!”

“They target the families of those who refuse to give themselves up, and they prosecute and punish their families ‘in accordance with Islamic law’,” said Christian Nellmann of RHIPTO.

“We anticipate that both former NATO/US personnel and their allies, along with their family members, will be subjected to torture and execution.”

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