Afghan Hazara elders pledge support for Taliban rulers

More than 1,000 Afghan Shia Hazaras yesterday pledged their support to the country's new Taliban rulers, insisting that the "dark period" of previous Western-backed governments had ended with the return of the Islamists. Afghanistan's Hazaras have been persecuted by Sunni Islamists for centuries, but yesterday community elders gathered in Kabul alongside Taliban leaders in a show of support. Senior Hazara leader and former lawmaker Jafar Mahdawi, who organised the gathering, said the previous government of president Ashraf Ghani was the "darkest point" in the history of Afghanistan.