RASC News Agency: In a harrowing incident that has plunged Takhar Province into shock and mourning, a 13-year-old boy, Ahmad Taha Forotan, son of Abdul Majid, was brutally killed on Saturday, July 26, in the Teresht area of Warsaj district. While initial reports referred vaguely to “unidentified assailants,” emerging testimony from credible local sources points to direct involvement by members of the Taliban. Residents allege that Taliban fighters stationed in the area, who harbored long-standing political grievances against the victim’s family, were behind the killing. Following the murder, the grieving family of Ahmad Taha has reportedly endured repeated threats from Taliban forces. Several family members have been detained and imprisoned, intensifying the climate of fear. Persistent intimidation has forced the bereaved into silence, fearing further reprisals. This chilling episode once again underscores the Taliban’s structural failure to deliver on their hollow promises of “security” in Afghanistan particularly in the north and lays bare a reality of lawlessness, violence, and immunity for perpetrators within Taliban-held territories.
Nearly four years into Taliban rule, stability and the rule of law remain elusive. On the contrary, incidents such as the killing of Ahmad Taha reveal a worsening security crisis, the collapse of judicial institutions, and the entrenchment of a culture of impunity. “When armed men linked to the government can kill a child without cause and without consequence,” a northern Afghanistan security analyst told RASC, “it is not just a sign of political decay it is the complete moral bankruptcy of this regime.” Local elders in Warsaj district confirm that Taliban presence has brought no improvement to public safety, but rather deepened fear and tension among residents. “If the killing of an innocent like Ahmad Taha goes unpunished, no member of this family will ever feel safe again,” one elder told RASC on condition of anonymity. To date, the Taliban have issued no official statement on the matter, and local officials under their administration have refused to comment.
The victim’s family continues to live under duress, unable to seek justice due to fear of Taliban retaliation. This case mirrors countless others across Afghanistan under Taliban control a grim testament to a regime that preaches order yet sows oppression, that claims legitimacy while wielding violence against its own people. The tragic death of Ahmad Taha is not an isolated tragedy but a stark emblem of the peril faced by children growing up in a country where those in power have transformed violence into a political tool and stripped society of any genuine protection.
