Militants shoot dead 7 people, 9 taken hostage in Afghanistan

HERAT/KABUL: Afghan authorities on Wednesday recovered the bulletriddled bodies of seven passengers kidnapped by gunmen in the western province of Farah a day earlier, in an attack blamed on Taliban insurgents, police said.

The violence, which underscores the fragile security situation in Afghanistan, came after Taliban fighters closed a highway connecting provincial capital Farah to Herat city late Tuesday, stopping a bus and forcing 16 passengers to dismount, Farah police spokesman Iqbal Baher said.

They shot at least seven of them, while the remaining nine were taken hostage, he said.

Government forces launched an operation on Wednesday to free the hostages and open the highway, clearing roadblocks set up by the militants, Baher said.

They recovered the bodies of seven passengers, he continued, adding that six were civilians and one a police officer.

“It is not clear why the Taliban kidnapped and killed them, and we are still unsure about the fate of the remaining kidnapped passengers,” he stated.

The Taliban have so far not commented on the incident in Farah province, which has witnessed an increase in the militant group’s activities recently, according to provincial officials.

Highways around Afghanistan passing through insurgency-prone areas have become exceedingly dangerous, with the Taliban and other armed groups frequently kidnapping or killing travellers.

Civilians are increasingly caught in the crosshairs of Afghanistan’s worsening conflict as the Taliban step up their annual spring offensive, launched in April against the Western-backed Kabul government.

Six civilians seeking work in Farah, capital of western Farah province, were killed earlier this month when their pickup truck hit a roadside bomb.

Authorities blamed the Taliban for the attack.

The head of Farah’s provincial council, Jamila Amini, said nine passengers were killed and seven were kidnapped.

“There might be some security personal among those killed and kidnapped, but I can say that most were civilians,” Amini said.

According to both officials, there were clashes between Taliban militants and security forces in Shamal Gah village after the incident While the Taliban has not yet commented, the group regularly sets up checkpoints and stops vehicles to search for members of the government, security forces and those who connected to foreign troops in the country.