Woman assassins to go free under Afghan deal

KABUL: Female assassins who lured an Afghan security official to his death with promises of sex before shooting him and dumping his body at a cemetery are among thousands of Taliban criminals freed as part of a fragile peace plan.

While the ultra-conservative Islamists ban women from many areas of life - often forcing them to stay home and barring them from most jobs - they are not above using them as killers.

Muzghan and her aunt Nasreen walked free from jail in September after confessing to being members of the Taliban’s ultra-violent Haqqani network.

The two women had been on death row after several killings, including the murder of an Afghan intelligence agent at their home.

They had used Nasreen’s daughter as bait “under the pretext of selling her body”, on the orders of a Taliban commander, a security official told AFP.

The pair then shot the man with a pistol fitted with a silencer and crammed his corpse into a metal box that they left in the local graveyard, case files say.

Court documents seen by AFP show the two were prolific killers - adept not only at setting the deadly “honeytrap” but also at brute murders - including of their own relatives.

Two men from their family who worked as policemen died at the women’s hands - one was poisoned and the other killed when they planted a “sticky bomb” under the seat of his car.

It is not uncommon for relatives to take opposing sides in Afghanistan’s long-running conflict.“I was arrested for murder, kidnapping and cooperating with the Haqqani network,” Muzghan said in a video authorities made prior to her release.

“I will not join this group again.”