Saturday, July 26, 2014
Afghan Taliban massacre survivor 'played dead for hours under bodies of fellow passengers'
A man who survived a Taliban sectarian massacre has spoken of how he was forced to lay frozen among the bloody corpses of his fellow passengers for hours to save his life
Taliban killings of innocent civilians seem to be on the increase Photo: EPA
By Zubair Babarkarkhail in Kabul and Dean Nelson in New Delhi
3:38PM BST 25 Jul 2014
A survivor of an apparent Taliban massacre in which 14 civilians were executed by a roadside firing squad has spoken of how he laid still under bleeding bodies for several hours until the killers left and the police arrived the following morning.
Gul Agha was one of 18 passengers on two minibuses travelling from Ghor province in central Afghanistan to Kabul late on Thursday night when they were stopped on the road by 10 masked gunmen in military clothing. Many of them were traveling to celebrate the Eid festival which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Many of the passengers refused to leave their buses but were forced out at gunpoint, divided into two groups and robbed of their belongings before the gunmen opened fire. Eleven men and three women were killed.
The massacre is the latest in a growing number of killings which appear to have targeted civilians. Almost 5,000 non-combatants have been killed this year alone in Afghanistan.
According to Mr Agha, the gunmen had originally spared the women but then shot them to stop their screams at the killing of their friends and relatives and the carnage around them.
General Ahmad Fahim Qayem, police chief of Ghor province, said the killings were the latest in a series of Taliban killings of innocent civilians aimed at terrorising the local population.
The gunmen had stopped the two minibuses, known locally as 'flying vans’, in the Badgah area of Ghorakh city at around midnight.
“This cruel act is done by the terrorists, the Taliban, they are the enemy of Afghan people and want to terrorise people with their inhuman acts”, he said.
Gul Agha was one of four survivors - two of whom suffered bullet wounds to their chests and arms - who fell down with their fellow passengers and played dead while the killers checked the bodies for signs of life.
“When they took us out of the cars, they body checked us and took all our belongings and money. Then they divided us in two groups and and one of them shouted ’fire’”, he told the Telegraph in a telephone interview.
“I played dead, because people were standing very close to each other in the group, I fell near other people who were dead. I was laying beside the dead bodies until the light of the morning, my clothes are colored with blood of other people”, he said.
In his statement to the police, he said he had to remain still and silent for several hours because the gunmen loitered at the scene after the killings and left shortly before the police arrived.
The victims are believed to have been members of the minority Hazara Shia community which has suffered continuing sectarian violence at the hands of Taliban and other Sunni terrorist groups.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Afghan conflict: 15 killed in 'Taliban attack' on buses
Ghor province has been relatively stable and loyal to the governmentSuspected Taliban gunmen have killed 15 people who were travelling by road in the central Afghan province of Ghor.
The attackers stopped two minibuses overnight, ordered the passengers out and shot them dead, according to the province's police chief.
The victims - including three women and a child - were from the minority Hazara community, which has been targeted by the Taliban in the past.
Growing numbers of civilians have been killed in Afghanistan this year.
According to the UN, nearly 5,000 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2014 - a rise of almost a quarter on the same period in 2013.
Abdul Hai Khatibi, a spokesman for the governor of Ghor province, told the AFP news agency that the attackers had "ordered all passengers to stand in one line, and then they shot them dead one by one".
The spokesman is quoted as saying that one man managed to flee the attack. A newly married couple were among the dead.
Ghor province has been relatively stable and loyal to the government, says the BBC's David Loyn in Kabul.
He says people across Afghanistan have been travelling before the festival of Eid, often choosing to move by night to avoid the heat of day.
Tense time
In a separate attack on Thursday, two foreign aid workers were shot dead in a vehicle in Herat province
On Thursday, gunmen in Afghanistan shot dead two Finnish women working for a Christian aid charity in the western city of Herat.
A local governor said the women had been travelling by taxi when gunmen on a motorcycle fired on their vehicle.
The attacks come at a tense time for Afghanistan.
The majority of foreign troops are preparing to leave by the end of the year, and votes are being rechecked in a fiercely disputed presidential election to choose a successor to Hamid Karzai.
On Thursday, gunmen in Afghanistan shot dead two Finnish women working for a Christian aid charity in the western city of Herat.
A local governor said the women had been travelling by taxi when gunmen on a motorcycle fired on their vehicle.
The attacks come at a tense time for Afghanistan.
The majority of foreign troops are preparing to leave by the end of the year, and votes are being rechecked in a fiercely disputed presidential election to choose a successor to Hamid Karzai.
Pictorial Report: Taliban Executed 16 Hazara Passengers in the Ghor Province of Afghanistan
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| Her bridal garments became the flags on her graveyard (Newly married couple were among the victims of Taliban massacre at Ghor Province of Afghanistan ) |
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