Several dead in protests in eastern Afghanistan

Several people were killed when a demonstration broke out in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday after Taliban authorities ordered houses cleared to make way for a building construction, a provincial official said. 

The Taliban authorities had ordered residents to vacate the land on the road between provincial capital Jalalabad and the border with Pakistan to make way for a new customs building, said the head of the information and culture department for the Torkham border point, Arafat Mohajer.

“The residents of the area created chaos in response,” said Mohajer, and in clashes one Taliban official was killed as well as “a number of people who were occupying the land (illegally)”.

The demonstration and clashes had blocked the key road from Jalalabad to Torkham, Mohajer added.

The authorities said the land was government-owned but the residents, members of the Kuchi ethnic group, said they have the deeds, eyewitness Jamil Katwal said.

“Three people were killed, and some others were wounded,” he told AFP, citing residents who took part in the protest.

“If the problems are not sorted, the protests will continue,” he added.

Demonstrations are very rarely reported in Afghanistan since the Taliban authorities took power in August 2021.

At the end of last week, protests broke out in northeastern Badakhshan after Taliban security officials and residents clashed over the violent clearance of poppy crops, leaving two dead.