KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Local sources in Ghor province report that Khairullah, a former police commander under the previous government, was killed in the Teyora district on Saturday.
A source told KabulNow that Khairullah was shot in front of his home in Pai Hisar village by individuals under the command of Saifurrahman Saber, the former Taliban intelligence chief in the district. However, another source stated that Saber denied any involvement in the killing.
According to the source who blamed the Taliban, the alleged perpetrator was relocated by individuals linked to Saber. The Taliban had previously imprisoned Khairullah who was later released on bail.
The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Ghor dismissed allegations of Taliban involvement, attributing the killing to a “personal dispute.” He claimed that Taliban forces had arrested the suspected killer.
Despite the Taliban’s declared “general amnesty” after their return to power in 2021, numerous reports indicate continued arrests, detentions, torture, and extrajudicial killings of former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) members.
In his latest report on Afghanistan, UN Secretary-General António Guterres documented at least four extrajudicial killings, nine arbitrary arrests, and six instances of torture or ill-treatment of former government officials and soldiers by the Taliban in the past three months.
The UN also recorded one extrajudicial killing and seven arbitrary arrests of individuals accused of being affiliated with the National Resistance Front (NRF), an armed group opposing the Taliban, during the same period.
Human rights organizations and activists have repeatedly accused the Taliban of ongoing revenge killings and enforced disappearances of former security forces, warning that such abuses continue unchecked across the country.
