A former soldier was killed under unclear circumstances in the central province of Kapisa, local sources said on Wednesday, in the latest reported killing of a member of Afghanistan’s former security forces.
The man, identified by sources as Nabi Kohistani, was shot dead in the Rigrawan area of Kapisa, they said. He had been forcibly returned from Iran about two months ago following the deportation of Afghan migrants.
Taliban have not commented on the killing.
The incident comes amid repeated reports of former soldiers and officials being targeted by unidentified gunmen in various parts of the country since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
In its most recent annual human rights report, the US State Department, citing reports from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other sources, said members of the Taliban and the Islamic State’s Afghanistan affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan, had carried out “arbitrary and unlawful killings” in Afghanistan.
Many of the killings appeared to be reprisals against individuals linked to the former government since August 2021, the report said.
The State Department added that despite the Taliban’s public declaration of a “general amnesty” for former government officials and members of the previous Afghan security forces, the authorities have generally not made public any efforts to hold their own police or fighters accountable for such abuses.
The report said that although the Taliban have repeatedly reaffirmed the amnesty, there are credible reports that Taliban security forces have carried out arbitrary killings of civilians in provinces including Panjshir, Kunduz, Kabul, Nimroz, Ghazni, Khost, Jawzjan, Faryab, Takhar, Sar-e Pol and Herat.
It also said UNAMA had documented cases in which former government officials were arrested on allegations of links to armed resistance groups, with victims and their families saying the accusations were false and that the real reason for their detention was their past affiliation with the former government.
