IEA responds to UNAMA report on torture, says review is false and ‘propaganda’

Responding to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan’s (UNAMA) report on torture of detainees, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) said Wednesday the assessment was not true and that it was “propaganda”.

In a post on X, the IEA’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, said the Islamic Emirate strongly rejects the claims.

UNAMA said in the report, issued early Wednesday that it had documented more than 1,600 cases of human rights violations committed by authorities in Afghanistan during arrests and detentions of people. The report stated nearly 50% of the violations consisted of “torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

In his post on X, Mujahid said: “In any military or civil institution of the Islamic Emirate, including detention rooms and prisons, it is not allowed to beat or torture anyone.”

He stated that the IEA’s supreme leader has prohibited beating and harassment in all areas of the system without a court order, and all institutions are obliged to comply with this order.

“In the prisons of the Islamic Emirate, there are all services for the prisoners, they are given training, they are given vocational education, they are provided with good facilities and no prisoners [are] facing violence,” Mujahid added.

According to Mujahid, thousands of Afghans had been imprisoned in Bagram, Pul-e-Charkhi and other provincial prisons under the supervision of UNAMA, during the former government’s tenure, without having committed any crimes. He said these prisoners had been deprived of all human rights, and they were severely tortured.

“They were deprived of all human rights, and faced severe tortures and beatings. Now that the situation has changed supernaturally, there is no beating or harassment of the prisoners, all possibilities are available to them, and they are able to see their relatives,” Mujahid said.

He said that spreading bad propaganda on this matter – against the Islamic system – “is a bad behavior that should be stopped.”