Brother of Afghan opposition figure executed, family says

The brother of Amrullah Saleh, the former Afghan vice president who became one of the leaders of an opposition force in the Panjshir valley, has allegedly been “executed” by Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan forces, his nephew said on Friday.

Reuters reported that news of Saleh’s brother Rohullah Azizi’s death comes just days after Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan forces took control of the provincial centre of Panjshir, the last province holding out against them.

“They executed my uncle,” Ebadullah Saleh told Reuters in a text message. “They killed him yesterday and would not let us bury him. They kept saying his body should rot.”

However, Reuters reported the Urdu language account of the Islamic Emirate information service Alemarah said that “according to reports” Rohullah Saleh was killed during fighting in Panjshir.

Amrullah Saleh, a former head of the National Directorate of Security, the intelligence service of the Western-backed government that collapsed last month, is at large though his exact location remains unclear.

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which groups opposition forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, has pledged to continue opposing the Islamic Emirate even after the fall of Panjshir’s provincial capital Bazarak, Reuters reported.