RASC News Agency: The campaign of targeted killings against former members of Afghanistan’s security forces has intensified, claiming two additional lives and bringing the total number of assassinated ex-officers in the past week to five across multiple provinces. Local sources confirmed that Faiz Mohammad, a former officer of the Public Order Forces and a resident of Kohna district in central Baghlan, was fatally shot by unidentified armed assailants near his home. Following the collapse of the previous government, he had sought refuge in Iran and had only recently been forcibly returned to Afghanistan.
In a parallel incident, Commander Samad, a former officer of the National Security Directorate, was gunned down by unknown attackers in Khost province. While some sources speculated about familial disputes as a possible motive, eyewitnesses and local residents maintain that he was a deliberate target of Taliban-affiliated forces.
With these two killings, the number of former security personnel assassinated in the last week now stands at five, spanning Badakhshan, Logar, Herat, Khost, and Baghlan provinces. These developments have sent shockwaves through former defense and law enforcement personnel, many of whom have publicly expressed that their personal safety is now gravely threatened.
Community members widely believe that these attacks were orchestrated and coordinated by the Taliban, though the group has remained silent, issuing no statements or explanations for the murders.
Human rights organizations and international observers, including UNAMA, warn that these killings are part of a systematic Taliban strategy to intimidate former government personnel and spread fear across Afghanistani society. Contrary to repeated promises of “general amnesty,” former members of the national defense and security apparatus have been repeatedly subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, and extrajudicial execution. In several cases, victims’ bodies were discovered bearing clear signs of violent assault, yet families remain too terrified to speak publicly for fear of reprisal.
Analysts emphasize that this campaign of targeted violence serves not only to eliminate perceived opponents but also to erode social memory and preemptively suppress any potential resistance. Under these conditions, ordinary citizens, women, and families live in a state of persistent insecurity, and the Taliban’s warning is unmistakable: no one is safe, and dissent will be met with brutal consequences.
The continuing wave of assassinations highlights the Taliban’s systematic use of terror as a governance tool, demonstrating that their proclamations of reconciliation and public amnesty are nothing more than propaganda. Far from fostering stability, the regime relies on fear, intimidation, and extrajudicial violence to consolidate its fragile hold on power. Former security personnel, ethnic and community leaders, and the general population remain under relentless threat, underscoring the profound insecurity and lawlessness that define Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
This pattern of repression, according to human rights experts, represents a deliberate effort to instill terror, suppress civic participation, and fracture Afghanistani society, leaving communities traumatized and generations of citizens exposed to a future dominated by fear, mistrust, and authoritarian control.
