Afghanistan: Two women killed by Taliban during house search | “They are checking women’s wardrobes and clothes,” said an anonymous witness.

Two women were killed by Taliban fighters during a house search in the south Afghanistanthis Tuesday informed a religious leader and a representative of the local administration.

Since they took power in August 2021, Taliban They are searching house by house, all over the country, for weapons, criminals and opponents of the Islamic regime.

Wali Khan, a religious leader in the area, said Taliban fighters were searching a house in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, on Sunday, wounding a woman.

She explained that two other women and a man from the family decided to take her to the hospital. “They were in a hurry. When they saw them fleeing, the Taliban thought they were fleeing with weapons and opened fire on their car,” he said, killing the two women who escorted the wounded, he said. Residents said two men were also wounded in the shooting.

Hafez Rashid, head of the governorate’s Department of Information and Culture, confirmed that “two women were killed during a search operation in the Post Kalla area of ​​Lashkar Gah.”

And in recent days, the Taliban have stepped up patrols in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province, the regime’s stronghold.

An AFP correspondent reported that temporary roadblocks have been set up at major intersections in Kandahar, and that random inspections of vehicles are being checked and the identities of their occupants are verified.

“They even check women’s wardrobes and clothes. What kind of search are we talking about? It’s not true,” said a Kandahar resident whose home was searched on Tuesday.

“They should bring a metal detector to look for weapons, but they can’t search that way. They scattered everything and left,” he said on the pretext of anonymity.