By: Shabana Shabdeez
In recent days, Badakhshan province has once again witnessed one of the most horrific episodes of targeted, systematic violence. According to local reports and eyewitness accounts, several young men were dragged from their homes at night in the mountainous region of Kotl-e-Saridasht, Raghistan district, and executed en masse by unidentified armed men. Their bodies were discovered before dawn, scattered across the surrounding mountains and valleys.
This was not an isolated incident.
In the Khairabad area of Baharak district, three members of a single family were brutally killed by unknown assailants. In a separate event in Shughnan district, a young Ismaili man was shot dead in front of his family.
Witnesses and residents speak of a deeply worrying rise in killings that appear deliberate, patterned, and systematic. The victims are often former soldiers, or individuals with ideological or religious differences — many of them forcibly deported from Iran.
Each morning in some corner of Badakhshan, another body is found — nameless, voiceless, unanswered.
The People of Badakhshan Ask:
-
Who orders these killings?
-
Who are the perpetrators of these crimes?
-
Why does neither a national nor an international body respond?
Local residents point their fingers at networks operating under the guise of “unidentified armed men” within the Taliban’s structure, carrying out these crimes with full impunity. The silence of human rights organizations and international media has only fueled the continuation of this tragedy.
This Is Not Just a Local Crime
It is part of a systematic campaign of repression against:
-
Former military personnel
-
Human rights and civil activists
-
Ideological and religious dissidents
These atrocities continue while the voices of victims are suffocated in the oppressive legal and media climate. Families are left alone — unanswered, hopeless, and mourning their loved ones.
