Version 1 of Mazar-i Sharif massacre of 1998

Taliban forces captured Mazar-i Sharif on 8 August 1998. Killings, house-to-house searches and detentions continued into early September.¹

The killings

Human Rights Watch believes that "at least 2,000 may have been killed in the city and possibly many more", and notes that no full investigation had been possible.¹ Hazara men and boys were particularly targeted, in part because of their Shia faith. Tajik and Uzbek men were also sought out.¹

Women and girls were reportedly raped and abducted. In two known cases, nearly all the men in transport containers died of asphyxiation or heat stroke on the way to Shiberghan.¹ Speeches by the Taliban governor, Mulla Manon Niazi, were cited as evidence of intent at a senior level to target Hazaras.¹

Eight Iranian consular officials and an Iranian journalist were also killed.¹

Context

Human Rights Watch describes the killings as partly retaliation for the execution of some 2,000 Taliban prisoners by Hazara and Uzbek forces in May 1997, and also as sectarian.²

Footnotes

1. Human Rights Watch, The Massacre in Mazar-i Sharif, November 1998. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Human Rights Watch, Massacres of Hazaras in Afghanistan, February 2001. ↩