South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 after the collapse of the communist regime in 1992, their situation deteriorated again. When the extreme Sunni militants,28 the Taliban, overtook the control of Kabul in 1996, it was their first encounter with nonPashtuns on such a scale. Their treatment of other non-Pashtun ethnic groups was marked by suspicion. As they began pushing militarily towards the north, the Taliban faced fierce resistance from non-Pashtun ethnic groups. In 1997, in an attempt to seize control of Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of the northern region, Abdul Malik, an Uzbek warlord—who had changed allegiance from the Taliban to Hizb-e Wahdat (the Hazara-led party) killed thousands of the Taliban soldiers in street battles.29 When the Taliban gained control of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998, they massacred Hazaras, apparently due to their religious differences and old blood feuds.30 It is estimated that two to five thousand Hazara civilians were summarily executed at the time.31 Hazaras, who escaped the barrage, were forced to either convert to Sunni Islam or leave the country. They were also forced to pay Jizya or face death.32 There have been numerous other instances of widespread killing of the Hazaras, such as the massacre at Yakaolang in January 2001,33 at Robatak Pass in May 2000,34 at Bamiyan in 1999,35 and at Mazar-eSharif in September 1997.36 In 2001, human rights groups unearthed and documented bodies of hundreds of Hazara men, women and 28 Rashid Ahmed, Taliban: militant Islam, oil and fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010). 29 ‘Taliban Massacre based on Ethnicity,’ The Washington Post, accessed November 11, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ politics/1998/11/28/taliban-massacre-based-on-ethnicity/efe15f81-abed-4e57-96f1046cc59d1d48. 30 Human Rights Watch, ‘Afghanistan: The Massacre in Mazar-e Sharif’, November 1998, https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0. htm#TopOfPage. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 Human Rights Watch, ‘Massacre in Yakaolang’, January 2001, accessed November 11, 2019, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghanistan/afghan101-03. htm. 34 Human Rights Watch, ‘Summary’, accessed November 11, 2019, https:// www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghanistan/afghan101.htm. 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid. 8