KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – General Abdul Rauf Mohtaj, a former senior military official under the previous government, was killed after being “deliberately” run over by a vehicle carrying Taliban members, sources confirmed to KabulNow.
The incident occurred on Friday morning, October 11, in the Khair Khana area of Kabul. According to eyewitnesses, Mohtaj was conducting his routine morning exercise when a Taliban vehicle struck him with intent, resulting in his death.
Mohtaj had reportedly been warned some time ago that the Taliban were planning to target him. As a precaution, he halted his morning exercises for about ten days but eventually resumed after downplaying the threat.
Sources suggest that the Taliban had carefully planned the attack, which they executed on Friday.
Taliban authorities in Kabul have not yet commented on the killing.
During the republican administration, Mohtaj served as Head of the 209 Shaheen Army Corps in Balkh. In June 2017, he, along with several other high-ranking commanders, was sentenced to a year in prison for negligence linked to a deadly Taliban attack on the 209 Shaheen Corps in April 2017. That assault resulted in over 136 Afghan soldiers being killed and 64 others injured.
Since regaining power three years ago, the Taliban have been accused of systematic human rights violations, including the arrest, detention, torture, and, in some cases, killing of hundreds of former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) members and ex-officials.
Rights groups continue to express concern over the Taliban’s actions, citing ongoing revenge killings and enforced disappearances, despite the regime’s public declarations of a “general amnesty.”
