Afghanistan: Controversy erupts over 'shipping container full of coprses' in Kabul

A controversy has erupted after Taliban's claim over shipping container full of dead bodies of soldiers of government forces at a Kabul hospital. Taliban say that these bodies of the soldiers were neglected by the previous Afghan government. But the country's former vice president alleged these were troops killed en masse by Taliban during its takeover of Kabul in August.

Taliban alleged that after these soldiers were killed, the previous government did not attempt to trace the families in order to hand over their mortal remains.

The allegation was made by Taliban army chief Qari Fasihuddin. He said that the Taliban government was trying to trace the families of the dead soldiers.

"At a 400 bed military hospital in Kabul, there's a big container which is full of bodies of soldiers. The past government didn't even have the courtesy to look after their relatives and handover the bodies to them. Now Islamic Emirate is trying its best to locate the families to whom these bodies belong and then handover these bodies to them. Unfortunately, we have not as yet been able to find them," said Fasihuddin.

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Taliban's claim that previous government neglected to hand over the bodies has been strongly denied by Amrullah Saleh, former vice-president of Afghanistan, who now calls himself 'Acting President-Islamic Republic of Afghanistan'.

"WARRNING: [sic] The shipping container(s) found filled with mortal remains of ANDSF in vicinity of military hospital in Kabul, as Talib junta claims, is totally baseless. It is the mortal remains of the wounded ANDSF who were massacred after August 15, 2021 by the Talibs en mass," he tweeted.

Taliban captured power in Afghanistan on August 15 following a lightning offensive that took the world by surprise. The Taliban captured power almost immediately as US-led coalition troops left the country.