Afghanistan: Killing of Mr. Asmatullah Salaam, director of Zhowand in Ghazni

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the killing of Mr. Asmatullah Salaam, director of the civil society organisation Zhowand and head of a local community council in Andar District, Ghazni Province.

According to the information received, on August 1, 2020, Mr. Asmatullah Salaam was kidnapped by Taliban members while he was driving to Khwzeyo, Andar District, Ghazni Province, to visit his family for Eid celebrations. The kidnappers stopped his car and abducted him. His body was found a day later, on August 2, in Wahghez, with signs of severe torture.

Mr. Asmatullah Salaam was an emblematic figure among the young people he worked with, was active in promoting education, and had recently started to implement projects with the Afghan Ministry of Education through Zhowand. This is not the first time that the organisation’s staff have been subjected to targeted killings. On June 22, 2020, Mr. Salaam’s predecessor, former Zhowand director Mr. Naqibullah Khaksar, was killed in Ghazni.

The Observatory strongly condemns the killing of Mr. Asmatullah Salaam, which seems to be merely aimed at punishing him for his legitimate and peaceful human rights activities in a context of systematic attacks on Afghan human rights defenders, civil society organisations, and journalists by armed insurgent groups.

The Observatory urges the Afghan authorities to immediately carry out a thorough, transparent, and impartial investigation into the killing of Mr. Asmatullah Salaam, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before an independent tribunal, and sanction them as provided by the law.

The Observatory is particularly concerned by the alarming number of targeted attacks against human rights defenders across Afghanistan and recalls that in a previous attack, the Taliban targeted two staff members of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Ms. Fatima Khali and Mr. Jawid Folad, who died when an improvised explosive device (IED) placed under their car exploded in Kabul on June 27, 2020[1]. On June 3, 2020, Mr.  Ibrahim Ebrat, representative of the Civil Society Joint Working Group (CSJWG) in Zabul Province, was fatally shot in the street while he was returning from Ramadan prayers[2]. To date, no investigations have been carried out in relation to their assassinations.

The Observatory calls on the Afghan authorities to implement the strategy for the protection of human rights defenders, to which they publicly committed on January 20, 2020, and to put an end to the culture of impunity that prevails in the country.