Taliban are to target Hazaras to try to match Daesh' brutality

A wave of kidnappings followed by numerous beheadings of members of Afghanistan’s Hazara ethnic group have spread alarm and anger among a people who historically have been this country’s most persecuted, according to The New York Times.

The police in Ghazni Province confirmed Sunday that four Hazara farmers kidnapped by the Taliban had been found beheaded in Ajristan District.

Six more Hazaras from Daikundi Province who had been kidnapped by unknown assailants were also found dead, dumped in Ajristan, less than a week after their families began searching for them, officials confirmed on Monday.

Although the police have not yet recovered the bodies, local reports said they, too, had been beheaded.

Beheading is not normally a Taliban tactic, but the insurgents seem to be trying to make an ugly example of the Hazaras, in what some see as a bid for attention.