Yakawlang a district in Bamiyan province of Hazarajat (Central Afghanistan) is the home of 60,000 people. Like other parts of Afghanistan, the people of Yakawlang have been victimized by fundamentalist groups even before the fall of the puppet regime in 1992. The stooges of Iranian regime in Hezb-e-Wahdat committed heinous crimes against these ill-fated people and rampaged their all belongings. In past many years these people were under the siege of Taliban and many people, mostly children, died of starvation.

In December 2000, the forces of the Northern Alliance captured this district which was subsequently recaptured by the Taliban militia in the first week of January.

UN, Amnesty International and especially Human Rights Watch confirmed that about 300 civilians, all men, including members of humanitarian groups, were rounded up and shot to death in various public areas by Taliban.

Taliban committed two massacres -- last May, and Jan. 8-11 in the central highlands of the country. The majority of victims in both attacks were members of the Hazaras, a Shiite Muslim sect.

"The bodies were lying on the ground face-down. All of their hands were bound behind their backs....The bullet wounds could not be made out on the backs, but there was blood on the ground beneath (their) chests....They were tied together in groups of three using their turbans, and scarves that had been wound together to make ropes. They were tied together, one to the other, using their own turbans" the witness reportedly said.

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