ISLAMABAD: Last month, the family of Mawlavi Ezzatullah, a member of Afghanistan's Hizb-e Islami party, received a WhatsApp message from his phone: "We have slaughtered your Mawlavi Ezzat, come and collect his body."
Ezzatullah's killing, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, was one of a steady stream of assassinations and bombings that have undermined Taliban claims that they have brought greater security to Afghanistan after 40 years of war.
Victims have ranged from former security officials from the ousted government to journalists, civil society activists, Taliban fighters and apparently random targets like Ezzatullah, whose family said he had no enemies they knew of.
The Taliban have said their victory has brought stability to Afghanistan, where thousands of people were killed in fighting between the group and Western-backed forces between 2001 and 2021 before the group emerged victorious.
But on just one day last week, pictures from Jalalabad - the provincial capital of Nangarhar - appeared online showing two bodies swinging from a rope. Residents also reported a mullah's murder and video footage was circulated of a group of gunmen firing into a car, apparently killing its occupants, one of whom was identified by local journalists as a Taliban official.
Reuters was unable to verify the images and footage independently.
On Sunday, according to locals, three bodies were brought into a hospital in Jalalabad after a roadside bomb explosion that apparently targeted Taliban fighters in a pickup truck.
Later that day, gunmen shot a former Afghan army soldier in front of his house, killing him and two friends standing nearby.
The Taliban have downplayed such incidents, saying that after decades of war, it will take time for the country to be completely pacified.
"There are 34 provinces in the country and in a week, 20 cases will be prevented for every one that takes place," said spokesman Bilal Karimi. "We have had 20 years of revolution and invasion and the level of these incidents will go down."
Some former soldiers and intelligence officers from the ousted government blame members of the Taliban for targeting them since taking over. The group has promised there would be no reprisals, but accepts rogue fighters may have acted alone.
Many targeted killings remain unclaimed and some may be the result of local vendettas.
But others look the result of increasingly open conflict between the Taliban and a local affiliate of IS, a development which the new US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom West, said on Monday was causing concern in Washington.
The militant group has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan in recent months in which hundreds of people have been killed, mainly in big cities.
"They are trying to undermine and discredit the Taliban. The Taliban promised security and they're trying to show they can't deliver it," said Antonio Giustozzi, a specialist on militant groups from the Royal United Services Institute in London.
He said IS, which he estimated to have around 4,000 fighters, had been carrying out a campaign of targeted killings since around the summer of 2020 and had continued since the Taliban victory in August on a "roughly comparable scale".
BIDEN HIRELINGS
For many going about their business, the violence feels particularly menacing.
"I have never been as terrified as I am now," said a university professor in Nangarhar who has also worked as a journalist and who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted. He described events in Nangarhar as "total chaos."
The violence has fuelled fears that Afghanistan could collapse into anarchy and even return to a new phase of civil war, creating a haven for militant groups to launch attacks in neighbouring countries and the West.
REGIONAL PLAYERS
A senior Taliban delegation led by acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is scheduled to visit Islamabad on Wednesday as India is all set to host a meeting on Afghanistan with regional players.
The Taliban foreign ministry said Muttaqi will discuss a range of issues during his trip, from the economy and refugees, to enhancing transit across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
This is Muttaqi's first visit to Islamabad following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August.
His visit coincides with a high-level meeting on Afghanistan in New Delhi, where the representatives of countries in the region and Russia will gather. Pakistan refused to attend the the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan.
India had supported the previous democratic Afghan government whilePakistan is seen as supporting the Taliban. - Agencies
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