After capturing the city Taliban forces perpetrated a massacre of members of the Shia Hazara ethnic group.
The newly installed Taliban governor, Mulla Manon Niazi, delivered speeches at mosques throughout the city in which he threatened to use violence against the Hazara people.
Accusing the Hazaras of killing Taliban prisoners in 1997, Niazi threatened to punish them in retaliation if they did not leave Afghanistan.
[14] In addition to the killings, the Taliban's campaign also included abductions of girls, kidnappings for ransom, torture, rape, arbitrary detention, and rampant looting.
The Taliban, as followers of a strict conservative Sunni sect, considered Shi'a to be infidels and sought to impose their religious beliefs on the Hazara population.
During their search operations in Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taliban ordered some residents to prove that they were not Shi'a by reciting Sunni prayers.
[16] While the Taliban primarily targeted Hazaras, Human Rights Watch interviewed witnesses who saw or knew of detentions of Uzbeks and Tajiks as well.
One interviewed Tajik witness, who had himself been detained, told Human Rights Watch: "Some of the prisoners were beaten, mostly Hazaras.
[22] In the aftermath of the incident, international tensions rapidly escalated with the Taliban regime, until it was ultimately ousted from power following the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.