Local sources in Balkh Province have reported that unidentified gunmen shot and killed a former government military officer in the region.
Sources speaking to Hasht-e Subh have disclosed that the former military officer was named Faiz Mohammad and was brutally killed on Thursday, September 7th, in his residence in the Kart-e-Sulh area of the seventh district of Mazar-e-Sharif city by unidentified gunmen.
Faiz Mohammad had served as an officer in the Ministry of Interior of the previous government.
While the motives and perpetrators behind Faiz Mohammad’s murder remain unclear at this time, sources have implicated the Taliban in the killing of this former government official.
This incident adds to a series of similar events since the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where numerous former government officials and military personnel have been targeted and killed in various parts of the country. Human rights organizations have accused the Taliban of being complicit in such incidents.
In a recent development, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a report on August 22nd, stating that from August 15th, 2021, to June 30th, 2023, they have documented at least 800 cases of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, and enforced disappearances of government officials and military personnel.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Taliban, denied the findings of the UNAMA report regarding the massacres and torture of former officials and military personnel by their forces but acknowledged instances of “personal vengeance” against former government officials.