Gunmen kill policeman’s mother in Faryab

MAIMANA (PAN): Unknown gunmen shot dead the mother of an Afghan border policeman in northwestern Faryab province, where two suspected militants were killed in a bomb blast, an official said on Wednesday.

The policeman’s parents left their home in Pashtunkot district late on Tuesday when the gunmen opened fire at them, killing his 72-year-old mother, said a border police officer, Ahmad Wais.

He added the father of Gulbadin, the border policeman, survived the attack that he blamed on the Taliban. “Taliban have not been able to kill Gulbadin, so they attacked his parents as they were a soft target.”

Mohammad Zahir, a relative of the deceased woman, said she had been mercilessly shot multiple times.

The district chief, Abdul Qadir Qadiri, said police were investigating the case and had launched efforts to arrest the killers.

But a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, strongly denied the charge. He said the Taliban considered it against humanity to kill a mother whose son worked for the government.

“We won’t target any woman, even the mother of (President) Karzai,” Ahmadi told Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone from an undisclosed location.

In Qaisar district, two suspected militants were killed and three others injured when the roadside bomb they were planting went off prematurely in Khwaja Kinti area.

The governor’s spokesman, Syed Qaisar Yaqubi, told Pajhwok Afghan News the dead included Mullah Sangin — a bomb-making expert.

Meanwhile, the Taliban said a police commander named Shah Wali was killed in an attack in Almar district, but local officials rejected the claim.

mds/ma/mud

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