Targeted Assassination in Faryab: Former Provincial Council Secretary Slain Amid Mounting Taliban-Led Insecurity

RASC News Agency: In yet another alarming sign of Afghanistan’s deteriorating security under Taliban rule, local sources in Faryab province have confirmed the targeted assassination of Mohammad Saleh, a prominent former government official and civic leader. Saleh, who served as the Secretary of the Faryab Provincial Council and previously as the Mayor of Elmar, was killed under suspicious circumstances on Sunday afternoon while traveling on the Maymana–Elmar highway. The nature of the attack remains murky, with no official account provided by the Taliban regime. However, early indications and local testimony strongly suggest the hallmarks of a politically motivated killing. According to a close associate of Saleh who requested anonymity for security reasons the Taliban are suspected of orchestrating the assault due to Saleh’s long-standing opposition to the group and his involvement in past anti-Taliban military campaigns under the leadership of Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Following the fall of the former Afghanistani republic in August 2021, Saleh had briefly taken refuge in Iran, only to return to Faryab in recent months. Upon his return, he had distanced himself from political life and focused instead on entrepreneurial ventures and humanitarian relief work, offering support to vulnerable families in the region. These acts of public service had restored his popularity among residents and reinforced his image as a principled and community-oriented leader. Yet under Taliban rule, public service and civic visibility have become liabilities, not virtues. This assassination has once again exposed the Taliban’s utter failure to ensure law and order, especially in Afghanistan’s volatile northern provinces, where reprisals, ethnic persecution, and political vendettas now operate unchecked. The group’s deliberate silence in the face of Saleh’s killing has only compounded fears among civil society figures, former republic-era officials, and local elders, many of whom now live in constant fear of being similarly targeted.
Despite widespread calls for accountability, the Taliban have neither launched a credible investigation nor released any statement regarding the incident. This lack of transparency has intensified public outrage and reaffirmed widespread skepticism regarding the regime’s commitment to justice, stability, or even the basic protection of citizens. Community leaders and human rights advocates view the murder of Mohammad Saleh as part of a broader campaign of intimidation a warning to all those who refuse to conform to the Taliban’s ideological rule or who once dared to resist it militarily or politically. Under such conditions, the space for independent leadership, free expression, and civic engagement continues to shrink at an alarming rate.
The assassination has also reignited concerns among international observers about the Taliban’s inability or unwillingness to control rising political violence and extrajudicial killings. If left unaddressed, such targeted attacks could derail any semblance of peace in northern Afghanistan and plunge the region into a renewed cycle of instability and ethnic division. As global attention wavers and Taliban officials continue to issue hollow promises of reconciliation, the people of Afghanistan particularly those in its embattled northern provinces remain caught between state-sponsored repression and a vacuum of justice. The murder of Mohammad Saleh serves as a chilling reminder that under Taliban rule, not even past service, public admiration, or humanitarian goodwill can protect one from the reach of violence.