Afghanistan: Family fear for Hazara cousin's life

Mahnaz says her cousin feels helpless in Afghanistan and is in hiding as he fears for his life

A family have said they fear for a relative's life as he hides from the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Mahnaz said her cousin believed he would be targeted because of his work with US military in the past and his ethnic background.

He belongs to the minority Hazara community, which has been persecuted by the Taliban in the past.

With the Taliban in control, Mahnaz said her cousin "spends most of his days crying... he's helpless".

Her family live in the West Midlands, where they are trying to stay in touch and find help for him.

She said her cousin, in his 30s, worked in the Afghan military and alongside foreign troops before they left the country.

He is engaged to be married, but has gone into hiding and Mahnaz said much of his personal information had been passed on to the Taliban.

"If they find out who he is and where he lives, his life will be in danger," she said.

"Right now he is stuck at home. He does not have a job or anywhere to go."

The Hazara people traditionally come from the mountainous central belt of Afghanistan

The family are also from the Hazara community, Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group.

Brutally tortured

They mainly practise Shia Islam and have faced long-term discrimination and persecution in predominantly Sunni Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Human rights group Amnesty International said in August the Taliban had recently "massacred" and brutally tortured several members of the Hazara minority in the country.

"It is heart-breaking to have to watch it all on the news, to have like the whole world watching it and not do anything about it," Mahnaz said.

"It is as if people are just dying and everyone else in the West, they are just watching. I just do not understand how this is happening."

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Hazara activist Homira says she fears the Taliban will persecute the Hazara community now they are in power

Homira, a Hazara activist, said she feared the Taliban had not changed and more of her community would be persecuted.

"We need to ensure that the international community are going to pressure the Taliban to ensure that minorities, religious minorities, certain ethnic groups are protected if they are to govern the country," she said.

Who are the Hazara?

• Of Mongolian and Central Asian descent

• Legend has it they are descendants of Genghis Khan and his soldiers, who invaded Afghanistan in the 13th Century

• Mainly practise Shia Islam, in predominantly Sunni Afghanistan and Pakistan

• Make up 9% of Afghanistan's 39.9m people

• Severely persecuted by the Taliban in the past