RASC News Agency: In a chilling escalation of the Taliban’s ongoing campaign of vengeance, local sources in the northern province of Jawzjan have confirmed that a former Afghanistani security officer was executed by Taliban fighters in broad daylight. The targeted killing occurred on Wednesday, June 4, in the city of Sheberghan, the provincial capital. The victim, Bahawuddin Talash, had served as a police officer under the now-defunct Republic government. According to eyewitnesses, he was ambushed and shot multiple times at approximately 9:00 a.m. while walking home from the city bazaar. His killing took place without any form of judicial process, underscoring the Taliban’s continued use of extrajudicial executions to eliminate perceived enemies.
Talash, a native of Sheberghan, had previously sought refuge in Iran following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. However, local sources report that he was recently deported back to Afghanistan by Iranian authorities. His forced return proved fatal. Within days, he was tracked, targeted, and executed by Taliban militants demonstrating the lethal consequences facing deported Afghanistani refugees. This is far from an isolated case. Since seizing power, the Taliban have systematically carried out revenge killings against former members of the Afghanistan’s National Security Forces, particularly those deported from neighboring countries. Despite public proclamations of a “general amnesty,” the Taliban’s actions reveal a calculated policy of persecution against individuals who served under the former democratic government.
Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the Taliban’s campaign of terror against former civil servants and security personnel, describing it as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. These killings are part of a broader pattern of state-sanctioned violence designed to silence dissent, erase the past, and consolidate absolute control. Equally disturbing is the role played by neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan, whose recent mass deportation campaigns have forced tens of thousands of Afghanistani refugees many of whom are at grave risk back into the hands of the very regime they fled. These returns blatantly violate the principle of non-refoulement under international law, which prohibits sending individuals back to countries where they face torture, persecution, or death.
The deportation of Talash and others like him has triggered an outcry from civil society groups, journalists, and human rights defenders, who are demanding urgent international intervention to halt these expulsions and offer meaningful protection to at-risk Afghanistani nationals. “The execution of Bahawuddin Talash should be a wake-up call to the international community,” said one human rights advocate based in Kabul. “For every refugee forced back into Taliban-controlled territory, there is a real risk of death. Deportation is no longer a bureaucratic act it is a death sentence.” As deportations surge and the Taliban’s grip tightens, the space for justice, memory, and accountability in Afghanistan continues to shrink. Talash’s execution is not only a personal tragedy; it is part of a larger, orchestrated erasure of the country’s republican past and a warning to all who dare oppose the Taliban’s reign of terror.
Unless urgent steps are taken to protect vulnerable Afghanistanis from forced repatriation and hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes, the cycle of violence will deepen claiming more lives, silencing more voices, and extinguishing hope for a free and just Afghanistan.
