KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Local sources in Takhar province, northern Afghanistan, report that a Taliban member has shot and killed a former local police commander in the region.
Speaking with KabulNow today, the sources identified the victim as Amandullah, originally from the Rustaq district, who was killed on Thursday evening, September 19.
According to the sources, he was shot near his home by a Taliban member named Obaid, who is associated with the Taliban district governor, Mohibullah Mukher.
A relative of the former local police commander confirmed the incident to KabulNow, saying that the reason behind it is not yet known.
The Taliban authorities have not yet provided any comment on the incident.
This incident marks the latest in a series of targeted arrests, detentions, torture, and killings of former soldiers and employees of the previous government by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Since their return to power in Afghanistan three years ago, the Taliban, despite their declared “general amnesty,” have arrested, detained, brutally tortured, and, in some cases, killed hundreds of former ANDSF members, local police commanders, and other employees of the previous government throughout the country.
In his recent quarterly report on the situation in Afghanistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres documented at least four extrajudicial killings, nine arbitrary arrests, and six instances of torture and ill-treatment of former government officials and soldiers by the Taliban over the past three months.
Rights groups and activists have repeatedly accused the Taliban of gross human rights violations, expressing concerns that revenge killings and enforced disappearances of former security forces have not stopped despite the regime’s “general amnesty.”
