15 Afghan Civilians executed in Ghor
KABUL: (Middle East Press) According to the local officials, at least 15 Afghan civilians, including three women and a child, were killed when “criminals linked to foreign intelligence” stopped three passenger vans early Friday morning and killed each one-by-one in the distant province of Ghor.
Provincial Governor Sayed Anwar Rahmati said “The 15 killed were separated by the armed men after their national ID cards were checked and an adviser to the provincial governor was also among those killed”.
Local officials said the victims belonged to the Hazara ethnic minority.
“Four of them were members of one family,” said Governor Rahmati. “A groom and his bride and the groom’s mother and sister have been viciously killed.”
The three vans – two heading to the capital of Kabul and one on its way from Kabul to Cheghcheran – were randomly stopped at one point in the remote Lal and Sarjungal district.
Ghor Police Chief Gen. Fahim Qayem said a search has begun to figure out why selected passengers were killed.
However, the suspected Taliban insurgents, blamed for most of the civilian causalities, have not yet commented about the incident.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his condolences in a statement released by the Presidential Palace to the victims’ families.
