The Afghan translator who had been abducted along with an Italian journalist last month was executed by the Taliban on Sunday afternoon. The Afghan government’s intelligence services spokesman, Saeed Ansari, confirmed Mr Naqshbandi had been killed.
Taliban claims that they killed Ajmal Naqshbandi because the government had refused to meet its demands to release senior figures from prison. While the Italian journalist was released two weeks ago in return of the release of 5 major Taliban prisoners, the government refused point blank in case of the Afghan prisoner.
What went wrong
The urgency and the willingness of both the Italian and the Afghan government to reach an agreement for the release of the Italian was starkly opposite in comparison to the present case. Both the governments clearly refused to come to any sort of an exchange. If they were willing the last time, then why not this time around? Precisely why I had thought. The western lives mean more, who cares about the poor Afghan translator dying.
I have written earlier on this issue, where I brought to question the fact that western lives seem to be more valuable while the lives of Afghans are worth peanuts. My worry has just been confirmed with this execution.
Strong international condemnation
The UN and other human rights organizations have strongly condemned this killing, as well as the failure of the government to act efficiently on the issue. Tom Koenigs, UN special envoy to Afghanistan, said
I condemn this senseless murder unreservedly and call on the authorities to bring those responsible to justice
What next
It is not unnatural for the Taliban camp to expect another deal. The last deal raised their expectation, and they probably felt that they could have their way by abducting journalists and demanding release of Taliban cadres in return.
The Taliban are currently holding five government medics and two French aid workers along with three Afghan colleagues. Their fate will be decided next, they say. But President Karzai has ruled out any more swaps no matter what the case.
Mr Karzai said on Friday
No more deals with no-one and with no other country. Mr Mastrogiacomo was an extraordinary situation and won’t be repeated again
What the President meant precisely, we do not know. What does come across is a stark biased sense of justice, where one man’s life is precious and presents a unique case while the other man’s life is “normal”?
We do not know what would happen to the current people being held, but the case of Ajmal surely has brought the intentions of the western and Afghan governments out into the open.
Via: BBC
