1/20 I missed the tweet feeds on the Hazara massacres under the Taliban rule. Some of the exchanges by some well-known experts have been dangerous generalizations, indicating distorted and selective reading of facts and highlighting a poor legal understanding.

2/20 Such a take on Afghan issues keeps resurfacing. This is not something new, it will gain greater traction as many Afghan & foreign experts have begun whitewashing Taliban for various reasons under the garb of peace negotiations. Some of the missing points are:

3/20 a) Taliban used targeting civilian population as a war strategy. Their attacks on civilians were planned, deliberate, widespread and systematic. b) they used different methods 2 exterminate civilian populations associated ethnically and religiously to their armed opponents.

4/20 c)Taliban imposed economic blockade on Hazarajat, causing extreme suffering on millions of civilians, malnourishing thousands of children & starving 2 deaths hundreds. Eating grass was left as d only surviving mechanism.This grave violation remained unreported & undocumented

5/20 d) Taliban executed a scorched earth policy in northern Kabul, destroying huge swathes of vineyards, farmlands and orchards, essential to the survival of local communities.

6/20 e) Talbn engaged in a Rwandan style of massacring Hazara civilians in Mazar, Robatak, Bamyn City, Yakawlang etc. They went on house 2 house search, hunting civilians, blocking their escape route & leaving houses & streets strewn with dead bodies.

7/20 A key of feature of such campaigns was setting a timeframe of 3 days 4 their militants 2 go on wholesale killing spree. Such killing sprees continued uninterrupted until instructed otherwise. Mullah Nayazi, a key architect of Mazar massacres, recently told he'd do it again.

8/20 f) Taliban captured, tortured and exterminated a generation of Hizbe wahdat leaders in Kabul after they had become horse de combat.

9/20 g) Taliban enslaved women and girls from the north, forcibly moved them to other areas such as Zabul and married them to their commanders and fighters as war booties.

10/20 h) Taliban enaged in widespread forced labour of civilians for building bridges and constructing streams and water canals including one of the longest one in Ghorband Valley.

11/20 The above examples are testament to the Taliban’s widespread and systematic nature of targeting of civilian population in Hazarajat and in the North as part of their broader military campaign strategy.

12/20 There are a number of cases where as a result of abrupt military campaign failures and subsequent chaos and anarchy, fighters from all parties to the conflict who had become horse de combat, have been killed in large numbers.

13/20 a) in 1997, a spontaneous rebellion against the Taliban who had just captured Mazar city led to a total military chaos as a result of which a significant number of Taliban fighters perished.

14/20 it was not part of a deliberate military strategy. However, in the course of the chaos, Wahdat, Junbesh and Jamiat fighters engaged in the killing of Taliban fighters who had earned protected status either because of being captured, surrendered or wounded.

15/20 b) in 1998, 3000 Whadat fighters who had come 2 Mazar similarly perished. They were either killed in military confrontations or captured/surrendered, wounded & then killed. It was largely more a military chaos than a deliberate military strategy that led 2 this massacre.

16/20 c) Taliban prisoners and foreign fighters killed in Qala-e- Jangi has taken place under similar condition of military chaos and disorder. Under either of these cases, IHL rules have been violated and potentially war crimes have taken place.

17/20 d) d massacre of prisoners in Dashte Laily stands out different. There appears 2 b a degree of planning & deliberation involved in d extermination of prisoners with protected status. To varying degrees, Junbesh & other Northern Alliance comanders implicated in this massacre

18/20 e) There was a precedent for killing of prisoners. Taliban had tortured and killed significant number of prisoners held in Shebraghan prison. This killing like Dasht-e- Laily involved prior planning and deliberation.

19/20 Victims & survivors are accessible. Talking about these massacres requires establishing facts as they have taken place, unpacking the different processes that have led to the massacres & placing acts of massacres within the broader military strategy of each conflict party.

20/20 Unfounded generalizations without establishing facts and without having a proper understanding of rules and laws applicable to the conduct of armed conflict is dangerous, an outright disrespect to the victims and could trigger dangerous chains of events.