KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Unidentified armed individuals have exhumed the remains of a former Afghan security commander in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, 14 February, local sources and Taliban authorities confirmed.
Family members said that the grave of Sadiqullah, a former police commander of Charchino district in Uruzgan province, was desecrated on Saturday night in the provincial capital, Tarinkot. According to his brother, Nazar Mohammad, the attackers destroyed the grave and removed the skull from the body.
Sadiqullah was killed in 2021, the year the Taliban returned to power following the withdrawal of US-led international forces.
In a statement, the Taliban’s provincial police command in Uruzgan confirmed the incident, describing it as an act of “desecration” that took place in the Shohada cemetery in Tarinkot.
Bilal Uruzgani, spokesperson for the Taliban police command, said an investigation had been launched to identify those responsible. He described the act as “inhumane and un-Islamic” and rejected accusations that the Taliban were involved.
He added that the group remains committed to the general amnesty announced by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada after the takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.
“Graves of prominent figures from the former republic exist in Uruzgan, and no one is allowed to harm them,” the spokesperson said.
It remains unclear who carried out the attack or what the motive was.
Similar incidents have been reported in Uruzgan in the past. In late 2020, Taliban fighters exhumed and beheaded the body of Shah Mohammad Shah, a former district police commander in Deh Rawud, about a month after his burial.
The latest incident is likely to raise fresh concerns among families of former Afghan security personnel, many of whom have reported threats, harassment and violence despite the Taliban’s declared amnesty.
Uruzgan province, located in southern Afghanistan, was a stronghold of both Taliban insurgents and Afghan government forces during two decades of conflict.
Investigations into the grave desecration are ongoing.
