2 months after killing reporter in Ghor, Taliban return to murder his family

HERAT -- Two months after killing journalist Bismillah Adel Aimaq, Taliban militants returned to murder his family, killing three of his relatives and wounding four others, local authorities in Ghor province confirmed.

The Taliban killed Aimaq's brother, niece and a cousin February 26, said Muhammad Arif Aaber, spokesman for the Ghor provincial governor.

"Among those killed ... is a 12-year-old girl," he said.

Aimaq, director of Voice of Ghor radio, was gunned down in a targeted Taliban attack on January 1 in Tighi Timor village, west of Firoz Koh, the provincial capital.

While carrying the three victims' bodies for burial in Firoz Koh, members of Aimaq's family demanded punishment for the perpetrators.

The attack came from fighters loyal to local Taliban commanders, said Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Tariq Arian.

Grieving over the three bodies, Gul Mohammad, Aimaq's father, said the killers of his journalist son came back to kill even more members of his family.

"Taliban commanders Mawlawi Ehsanullah (Amanullah Bek's brother), Mawlawi Abdul Aziz and Mawlawi Sarwar killed my son and nephew," he said.

"Ehsanullah Bek, a Taliban group leader, and his men attacked our house," said Aimaq's brother Lala Gul. "While we were transferring [one of] my wounded brothers to the hospital, Ehsanullah Bek ambushed us again, this time killing my [other] brother and cousin."

"My niece, a 12-year-old girl, was killed when a Taliban rocket hit our house," he said.

Taliban terrorising journalists, other civilians

The slaying of Almaq's relatives is a crime and its perpetrators must be brought to justice, said Mubarak Shah Sherzada, director of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission for Ghor province.

"In the past year, 130 civilians -- including 95 men, 12 women and 23 children -- have been killed by Taliban roadside bombs, battles and [Taliban] kangaroo courts in Ghor," he said.

The Taliban assault on the family of a journalist who was recently killed by the group is highly worrying, said Ghulam Rabbani Hadafmand, director of the Journalists Safety Committee in Ghor.

"We are deeply concerned about the safety of journalists and their families," he said. "Taliban threats and attacks have had a direct impact on journalism in the province. Journalists are afraid of being attacked by the group."

Targeted Taliban assaults on journalists and media workers have increased in recent months in Afghanistan, with six killed in 2020 and one killed so far this year, according to international observers.

Journalists do not feel safe and do not dare leave the provincial capital to cover news, Hadafmand said.

"The Taliban want to silence freedom of speech so that no one can report the truth," he added.

Condemning the Taliban's illegitimate war

More than 500 religious scholars from Herat, Farah, Ghor and Badghis provinces in a gathering in the Herat Grand Mosque on February 23 called on the Taliban to stop their illegitimate war and fratricide.

The war in Afghanistan is not jihad and the Taliban should not use the name of Islam to kill dozens of innocent civilians and security personnel daily, said Abdul Majid Samim, professor at the Faculty of Sharia at Herat University.

"After the Doha agreement between the Taliban and US [negotiators], the Taliban have no excuse for fighting," he said. "The current war is just killing Afghans, [it is] a totally illegitimate and inhumane war."

"This is a war between Muslims, which has no religious legitimacy," he said.

The war in Afghanistan is a forbidden war, said Mawlawi Nasir Ahmad Mohammadi, a member of Afghanistan's Ulema Council in the western region.

"This war is between two Muslim brothers; it is not a war between Muslims and infidels," he said. "According to Islam, this is a cursed war."

"Unlike war, which brings nothing but destruction and shedding of innocent blood, peace is a blessing, in which people and the country prosper," Mohammadi said. "We, the religious scholars, call on the Taliban and the government to make peace as God orders."