Eyewitness reports from inside Afghanistan reveal the Taliban is now gearing up to search and destroy Christians and other converts from Islam wherever they may be found.
US persecuted church agency International Christian Concern reports that the Taliban government that seized power last year in the renamed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has just sent a letter to local Taliban forces throughout the country. It orders them to find and kill every convert – women and children included. The letter highlights the apostasy of more than 20 families who have turned away from Islam and says that local forces must act immediately to identify them and then to apply Sharia Law rigorously, ‘as a lesson for the infidels and their supporters’.
The sources also report that the Taliban has already begun grabbing people. Eight weeks ago a family disappeared, certainly now all killed, and three days ago a friend’s brother went missing. He too will have suffered a similar fate. But the persecution is of a different order than that in many other countries. It does not take place in the open, through court cases or with publicity in the media. By contrast, in Afghanistan the persecution is entirely covert – by kidnap, torture and assassination. The Taliban will not claim or accept responsibility for their actions.
