Karzai orders probe as insurgents behead 17 party-goers in village
Source: Agencies |
August 28, 2012, Tuesday
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AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai accused the Taliban yesterday of beheading 17 villagers, including two women, in volatile Helmand Province, in a gruesome attack recalling the dark days of the hardline group's rule before their 2001 ouster.
He ordered a full investigation into the "mass killing," which a local official said was punishment to revellers attending a party with music and mixed-sex dancing.
"This attack shows that there are irresponsible members among the Taliban," Karzai said in a statement.
The Taliban denied they had taken part in the attack, which Karzai's office said took place in Kajaki District in the southern province.
"The victims were killed for throwing a late night dancing and music party when the Taliban attacked," Nimatullah, governor for neighboring Musa Qala District, said.
Men and women do not usually mingle in ultra-religious Afghanistan unless they are related, and parties involving both genders are rare and kept secret.
The killings, 75 kilometers north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, occurred at the beginning of a violent 24 hours for NATO and Afghan authorities in which 10 Afghan soldiers were killed in a mass insurgent attack, also in Helmand, while two US soldiers were slain by a rogue Afghan soldier.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf, who oversees the southwest of the country, denied the group was involved. "I spoke to our commanders in those villages, but they know nothing of the event," he said.
During their five-year reign, ended by United States-backed Afghan forces, sparking the present NATO-led war, the Taliban banned women from voting, most work and leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.
Though those rights have been painstakingly regained, Afghanistan remains one of the worst places for a woman.
Hours after the beheadings, Taliban insurgents overran an army post in the same province in a pre-dawn attack, killing 10 troops, authorities said.
Four soldiers were wounded and six others were missing following the attack in Helmand's Washir District, senior regional police officer Colonel Mohammad Ismael Hotak said.
In another setback for NATO, an Afghan soldier shot dead two US troops in east Afghanistan yesterday, the latest in a series of insider killings that have strained trust between the allies ahead of a 2014 handover to Afghan forces. The deaths in Laghman Province brought to 12 the number of foreign soldiers killed this month.
He ordered a full investigation into the "mass killing," which a local official said was punishment to revellers attending a party with music and mixed-sex dancing.
"This attack shows that there are irresponsible members among the Taliban," Karzai said in a statement.
The Taliban denied they had taken part in the attack, which Karzai's office said took place in Kajaki District in the southern province.
"The victims were killed for throwing a late night dancing and music party when the Taliban attacked," Nimatullah, governor for neighboring Musa Qala District, said.
Men and women do not usually mingle in ultra-religious Afghanistan unless they are related, and parties involving both genders are rare and kept secret.
The killings, 75 kilometers north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, occurred at the beginning of a violent 24 hours for NATO and Afghan authorities in which 10 Afghan soldiers were killed in a mass insurgent attack, also in Helmand, while two US soldiers were slain by a rogue Afghan soldier.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf, who oversees the southwest of the country, denied the group was involved. "I spoke to our commanders in those villages, but they know nothing of the event," he said.
During their five-year reign, ended by United States-backed Afghan forces, sparking the present NATO-led war, the Taliban banned women from voting, most work and leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.
Though those rights have been painstakingly regained, Afghanistan remains one of the worst places for a woman.
Hours after the beheadings, Taliban insurgents overran an army post in the same province in a pre-dawn attack, killing 10 troops, authorities said.
Four soldiers were wounded and six others were missing following the attack in Helmand's Washir District, senior regional police officer Colonel Mohammad Ismael Hotak said.
In another setback for NATO, an Afghan soldier shot dead two US troops in east Afghanistan yesterday, the latest in a series of insider killings that have strained trust between the allies ahead of a 2014 handover to Afghan forces. The deaths in Laghman Province brought to 12 the number of foreign soldiers killed this month.
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