Unknown armed men have shot dead Mawlawi Ghulam Mohammad Kababyani, the deputy chief of Ulema Council in western Afghanistan, in Anjil district of Herat province, according to a local source.
The incident took place earlier today, Thursday, June 03, in Kababyan village of Anjil district close the residency of Kababyani, said Abdul Khaliq Haqqani, director of Haj and Religious Affairs in Herat. He added that the religious scholar died of the wounds while being transferred to hospital.
According to the local official, Mr. Kababyani was targeted after he offered his morning prayer by two armed men riding a motorcycle.
The body of the religious scholar is now inside Herat’s Regional Hospital, according to Arif Jalali who is head doctor at the hospital. Kababyani was a well-known religious scholar in western Afghanistan for offering peace seeking speech and bluntly speaking against violence.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan has seen a dramatic rise in target killing of government workers, religious scholars, journalists, and civil society activists ever since the US and Taliban signed a peace deal in Doha on February 29, 2020, particularly after start of intra-Afghan talks at the same venue.
Scores of lives have been lost to this targeted violence so far.
The government blames the Taliban for these targeted killings but the militant group most often remains tightlipped and occasionally rejects responsibility for some of these attacks.
