The Taliban captured a man’s son and beheaded him “as if he was a sheep”, in yet another story detailing the horrors of Afghanistan. As we read in Francis 24:

Thousands of Afghans are fleeing Taliban-captured cities in the north, some telling of brutal treatment by the insurgents: bodies left in the streets, girls being kidnapped to become Taliban brides, and young men press-ganged into fighting.

Many have arrived in Kabul just this week, following a five-day Taliban blitz that has seen them seize eight provincial capitals — some with barely a fight.

But where there has been resistance, those who fled described harrowing scenes.

“We saw bodies lying near the prison… there were dogs next to them,” said Friba, 36, a widow who fled Kunduz Sunday with her six children as the Taliban took the city.

Like many who spoke to AFP, she asked not to be fully identified for fear of reprisal.

…

“Three days ago the Taliban killed a barber because they thought he was working for the government. But he was just a barber,” said Mirwais Khan Amiri, 22, whose car was struck by bullets as he fled Kunduz three days ago.

“They killed people who worked in government even if they had quit four to five years ago.”

Another evacuee from Kunduz, Abdulmanan, told AFP the Taliban beheaded his son.

“They took him… as if he was a sheep and cut off his head with a knife and threw it away,” he said.