Human Rights Watch has released a report that calls on new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his government to prosecute officials and commanders "whose serious human rights abuses have long gone unpunished."
The report, released March 3 and titled Today We Shall All Die: Afghanistan's Strongmen and the Legacy of Impunity, said the "previous Afghan government and the United States enabled powerful and abusive individuals and their forces to commit atrocities for too long with being held to account."
The report profiles eight "strongmen" linked to police, intelligence, and militia forces responsible for serious abuses in recent years.
The eight men named were Hazara leader Abdul Hakim Shojoyi, former Takhar police chief Khair Mohammad Timur, Commander Azizullah from the Urgun district in Paktika Province, Atta Mohammad Noor, a commander in northern Afghanistan, Najibullah Kapisa, the National Directorate of Security chief for Takhar Province, Mir Alam, a former senior commander with the Jamiat party, Asadullah Khalid, the former head of the National Security Directorate, and General Abdul Raziq, the Kandahar provincial police commander.
The report is based on 125 interviews HRW has carried out since August 2012.