The Taliban have caught a former commando officer from a wedding party and later shot him to death in public in Kabul, his relatives confirmed to Kabul Now. The commando officer named Samim who is from Bazarak, the capital city of Panjshir province.
The Taliban caught him from a wedding ceremony in Chaharrahi Shahid neighborhood, picked him up in a car, and then shot him to death in public, said Samim’s brother.
Samin had served in the ranks of Afghan commando forces – elite forces of the previous government – in the northeastern Kunduz province.
Sources confirmed to Kabul Now that the Taliban even did not allow Samim’s relatives to pick up his fallen dead body for burial. “Give us 20,000 Afghanis and then pick up the dead body,” the source quoted the Taliban as saying to anyone who tried to pick up the dead body.
The ruling Taliban have largely resorted to revenge killings against those who served in the files and ranks of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) dissolved with the Taliban takeover of the country. In a report published late in November 2021, Human Rights Watch said that more than 100 former Afghan security forces have been killed or disappeared by the Taliban since the militants seized control.
With the takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban leader declared a general amnesty for those who had worked for the former Afghan government, including former security forces. The amnesty, however, remained largely unimplemented across the country. At times, it even drew objections from top Taliban officials criticizing the group’s commanders and forces for not obeying the general amnesty.
Dozens of previous Afghanistan security forces have been either killed, tortured, or imprisoned in different provinces over the past 14 months.
In the latest cases, the Taliban have arrested two other former Afghan security forces who are both from Abshar district of Panjshir province. The two were identified as Mushtaq and Abdul Mutallib. Their relatives confirmed to Kabul Now on Saturday, October 15, that they couldn’t find any information regarding their whereabouts.
A member of the ANDSF was killed in Urozgan on Thursday, October 13, and another was found dead three days ago in Ghor province.
