A social media post which has been claiming that the Taliban are abducting young girls was found to be false.
Over the past week, an alleged screenshot of a tweet posted by the Al Jazeera news channel circulated online. In the tweet, the publication's English account was seen claiming that the Taliban, who took over Kabul on Aug. 15, have been abducting young girls from their homes.
Taliban Abducting Girls?
"Taliban started abducting minor girls from their home. The parents who are refusing to give their daughters to Taliban are being killed by Taliban fighters," the tweet read, as reported by Reuters.
However, it was later found that the screenshot is not authentic. The tweet is also not linked with the company. The account used featured a typographical error in the company name, which says "Al Jajeera" instead of Al Jazeera.
The Twitter handle of the fake account was AJENEws, which is the handle for Al Jazeera Breaking News.
The tweets come as more people raise concern over the safety and security of women after the group of insurgents took over the Afghan government last week. It also comes after a group of Taliban soldiers were said to have set an Afghan woman on fire because they were dissatisfied with her cooking.
According to former judge and campaigner against violence against women Najla Ayoubi, the soldiers had been part of an attack that the Taliban help against people waving the Afghan flag.
The judge also claimed that the insurgents were forcing families to marry their young daughters to soldiers.
"They also force families to marry their young daughters to Taliban fighters. I don't see where is the promise that they think women should be going to work, when we are seeing all of these atrocities," Ayoubi said, as reported by The Telegraph.
How Will the Taliban Rule Over Afghanistan?
The Taliban's central leadership has previously promised that it would respect women rights and protect civilians. However, several soldiers on the group appeared to be engaging in impulsive acts of violence.
Marcus Grotian, an active German soldier who ran a network of safe houses for Afghans who worked with coalition forces, said the Taliban are going door-to-door, searching for anyone who helped foreign forces.
The recent attacks followed the Taliban's brutal massacre of ethnic Hazara men in the Ghazni province last month. According to a report by Amnesty International, the insurgents killed at least nine men between July 4 to 6. Six of the men were shot to death while three were tortured. At least one of the victims was strangled to death using a scarf and had their arms sliced off.
The extremist group, notorious for their religious extremism and brutal punishments, have also cut mobile phone services in many of the areas they've captured. This has effectively allowed them to control the photographs and videos the people shared from their regions.
In a separate occasion, the Taliban were also seen hauling a driver out of his car after he was seen with an Afghan flag on his dashboard.
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