KABUL
Four women have been killed in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Saturday, as local sources identified at least one of the victims as a rights activist.
Two suspects have been arrested after the four bodies were found at a house in the city, said interior ministry spokesman Qari Sayed Khosti.
“The arrested people have admitted in initial interrogation that the women were invited to the house by them.
Further investigations are under way and the case has been referred to court,” he said. Khosti did not identify the victims, but sources in Mazar-i-Sharif told AFP that one of the dead was a women’s rights activist and university lecturer, Frozan Safi.
Three sources in Mazar-i-Sharif told AFP that they had heard the women received a call that they thought was an invitation to join an evacuation flight and were picked up by a car, only to be found dead later.
“I knew one of those women, Frozan Safi,” a female employee of an international organisation told AFP, on condition of anonymity. “She was also a women’s activist, really well known in the city.”
The source said that three weeks ago she had herself received a call from someone pretending to offer assistance in her efforts to get to safety abroad.
“He knew all information about me, asked me to send my documents, wanted me to fill a questionnaire, pretending to be an official of my office in charge of giving info to the US for my evacuation,” she said.
After becoming suspicious she blocked the caller, and is now living in fear. She was shocked when she heard about the killings.
“I was already scared,” she said. “My mental health is not good nowadays. I am always afraid that someone might come to my door, take me somewhere and shoot me.”
The Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August after a 20-year war against the former US-backed government, are a deeply conservative Islamist movement. Under their last period of rule, women were banned from public life and since the group’s return to government many rights activists have fled the country.
Some women who remained have held street protests in Kabul demanding that their rights be respected and that girls be allowed to attend public high schools.
Taliban have broken up some of the protests, and the government has threatened to arrest any journalists covering unauthorized gatherings. However as per report received later, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban government has confirmed the news reports that activists had been killed.
Two suspects have been arrested after the four bodies were found at a house in the city’s fifth police district, interior ministry spokesman Qari Saeed Khosti said in a video statement.
“The arrested people have admitted in initial interrogation that the women were invited to the house by them. Further investigations are underway and the case has been referred to court,” he said. Khosti did not identify the victims, but a source in Mazar-i-Sharif told that at least one of the dead was a women’s rights activist, whose family does not wish to speak to the media.
A report on BBC Persian, citing civil society sources, said the four women were friends and colleagues who had hoped to travel to Mazar-i-Sharif airport for a flight out of the country.—Agencies
