Armed men have killed a trader and two other civilians in two separate incidents took place since yesterday in the southern provinces of Zabul and Kandahar, local Taliban authorities confirmed.
The Taliban police in Kandahar said that armed robbers have killed an elderly villager and a woman after storming a house in Spinboldak district of the province on Wednesday at midnight. The armed robbers have also wounded another woman, poisoned two people, and stole an amount of money from the house, according to the Taliban local authorities.
Local authorities identified the villager as a man named Haji Gohar who was a community leader of his village in the district.
The armed robbers have managed to flee the area and no one is arrested in connection to the incident.
An investigation has been already initiated to probe the deadly robbery, said the Taliban police in a statement.
In Zabul province, unknown armed men killed a trader in its provincial centre, Qalat, inside his guesthouse on Thursday afternoon.
Zabihullah Johar, spokesman for the Taliban police in Zabul, detailed that the trader was “mysteriously murdered” by unknown armed men when he was sleeping in his guesthouse in Qalat.
He identified the victim as Mirwais who traded dry fruits in and out of the province.
The local Taliban official added that the group’s security forces have already started investigating the incident.
Afghanistan has seen a dramatic rise in mysterious and targeted killings over the past 20 months of the Taliban rule. In addition to former government officials and security forces, traders and community leaders have also been targeted in these targeted killings.
