Thousands of members of Afghanistan's mainly Shiite Hazara ethnic minority have fled their homes in the central province of Ghazni as the Taliban have pressed into two previously safe districts, officials and witnesses said on Wednesday.
In heavy fighting over recent days, hundreds of Taliban fighters have seized large areas of the Jaghori and Malistan districts, both heavily populated by Hazaras, a group that has long faced discrimination in Afghanistan.
"I saw Taliban burning the house of a local police commander, killing the commander and his son," said Mohammad Ali, who fled from his home in Jaghori to Ghazni city. "The bazaar was closed, there was no food, no medicine and no power so we escaped."