The Taliban hanged the eight-year-old son of a policeman who refused to cooperate with them in Helmand province. CNN reports:
An 8 year-old boy was hanged by militants in Afghanistan’s Helmand province after the boy’s father — a police officer in the southern city of Gereshk — refused to comply with militants’ demands to provide them with a police vehicle, officials said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the hanging, saying “this action is not permitted in any culture or any religions,” according to a statement Sunday, which provided details of the incident.
Karzai said he has ordered local authorities to root out the militants and arrest them “as soon as possible.”
The boy was kidnapped Friday. It was unclear when he was killed.
(Update: The New York Times has more details on this story.)
One would hope that incidents like these would stop President Karzai from calling the Taliban his “brothers.”
The Taliban are clearly seeking to intimidate the police in the south. In one district in Uruzgan, the Taliban appear to have been successful. Eleven policemen surrendered to the Taliban and turned over their weapons and a police pickup truck after their police commander was assassinated. From Pajhwok Afghan News:
The policemen laid down their arms in the Toshkan area of Khas Uruzgan district late on Friday night, the governor’s spokesman told Pajhwok Afghan News.
Milad Ahmad Mudassir said they had yet to receive details about the surrender, which was being investigated.
An intelligence agent, who did not want to be named, said the policemen had turned in a rocket launcher, several light weapons and a pick-up to the insurgents.
Abdul Hakim, a resident of the area, said the killing of their commander three days back had turned out to be a morale-buster for the local security personnel.
Members of the force in Khas Uruzgan are trying to quit their jobs, he said, claiming three of the men had been killed by the Taliban and their funeral prayers were offered in Toshkan today.
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16 Comments
Does this stuff make it to the mainstream US media? Does Al Jezerra make this stuff known?
I fear the ‘resonable’ non terrorist half of the world is managing to not confront the realities of their situation.
Bill,
You are the only one reporting on this horrific event. I have checked CNN, Fox News, BBC, Dawn and NOBDOY is covering this tragedy. It is almost like the world doesn’t want to hear what monsters the Taliban are anymore since we are all concerned about finding a way to exit out of the country.
Thanks for continuing to report on those events and issues that matter.
ALLAHU AKBAR!!!
MAY ALLAH HELP THE MUJAHIDEEN IN KHORASAN AND MAY THIS HAPPEN MANY MORE TIMES TO THE CHILDREN OF PUPPETS AND APOSTATES,
AMEEN.
Mark, Larry, I can’t take credit for this, it was a CNN report, as I stated above. So yes it was reported by at least one major news outlet.
FYI to all, I published the comment from Al-Emarah just so everyone can see how the other side views this issue. Enlightening is one word to describe it…
Bill,
Oops missed your link attritubing CNN.
Thanks for posting the Al-Emarah comment.
Enlightenment is not all sweetness and light.
But I think it’s better than the alternative.
Thanks for your work.
This NY Times article expands on the story a little;
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/world/asia/25afghan.html
Those comments were enlightening, interesting to know these people take notice of the site.
There are special racks in hell reserved for subhuman savages like Al-Emarah and those who intentionally kill innocent children.
This is not a civilizational war; it is a war to death between civilization and barbarism. This cold blooded murder of a child is despicable. If there really is a silent majority it is time to stand up.
Has ISAF or the Afghan govt personally sent any condolences to the father? Doesn’t seem like anyone has tried to help this man in his time of loss. We should do more to encourage or compensate (for lack of a better word) people who make such a corageous stand against the militants.
The 11 “Policemen” should be tried for treason, and hanged. That would discourage others from becoming traitors in this battle for their national soul (if they have one). Turning over weapons?
Why don’t the “policemen” go on a hunt for theses nasty, murderous Taliban? They know who they are. Why can’t villagers get them? Assasinations, if I may. I am sure villagers posess arm or can easily get them. And if the village supports Taliban…..?
Al- The Afghan govt won’t hang or even try the policemen because:
1) If people had to choose between serving the Afghan govt and staying alive (or keeping their families alive) then they would rather hand over their weapons and gear.
2) There would be a problem with keeping police officers in rural areas and recruiting more police.
3) The villages and familes of the hanged policemen would turn against (if they already haven’t) against the govt.
The problem with the village police and/or the villagers themselves going after the Taliban, is that most villages cannot afford to go against the militants. We have to remember that these villages are a tribal society and not ones to pledge complete allegiance to one main govt. We (Americans) will leave Afghanistan, Afghanistan does not have the manpower, expertise, equipment, money, etc to combat militants in every region all the time. However, the Taliban can get into the villages and coerce the population into aiding them.
Afghans aren’t like us or Europeans in the many things so dealing with COIN in the region (and in general) requires are different way of thinking than the general American public is used to.
Thank you! I thought I was the only one disturbed by the lack of media coverage of this horrible incident, the hanging of the 8 year old boy by the Taliban.
We haven’t seen evil in the world like this for a long time. It’s difficult, but we have to get the atrocities of these people out there into the world.
Hanging an eight year old boy must be done in the light where all can see.
Those like Mr. Al-Emarah must think they can forever get away with their atrocities. After all, no one appeared to even notice.
These people apparently lack the ability to reason. No one has ever taught or insisted they learn various ideas and then to express themselves. That must be why they all sound so much alike.
If the world doesn’t stand up against these people, it will just go on and on.
As they say, Jihad never ends… Therefore, like it or not, someone has got to end it.
Bringing the cowards into the light would be a start.
mark the name Al-Emarah. Its definitely an arab or a chechan/uzbak going by an arab name.
We pakhtuns/pathans are the victims of these psychotic heretics coming from arab or central asian countries and posing as muslims so that they can kill.
They are universally despised and what we would like the americans to do would be to wipe them out of existence. In effect, these non-muslim “mujahidin”are virtually running everything. They are providing the dollars and use their arab language to impress upon the illiterate idiotics who are in it for the money or the feel of power that comes with weapons.
Unfortunately, we, the pashtuns/pathans are often portrayed in “staged surveys” as their supporters while in factuality even the most religious one among us hate them like rabid dogs.
In discussion with a german expert in central asia and afghanistan, the learned doctor explained to me how the most atrocious acts like killing children,beating women publicaly and beheadings by the talibans cannot be carried out by pashtuns since its never been their part of their tribal revenge system. He explained that beheadings are basically more of central asian origins (remember the Tartars) and the arab raids where insulting and raping women were such a matter of prestige.
“Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the hanging, saying “this action is not permitted in any culture or any religions,”
Doesn’t he have to say this on a daily basis about all activity of the Taliban? Now he wants go after these muderers of children. Well, theres a lot more to go after than these guys Mr. Karzai.
What amazes me is that people such as El-Amarah praise such acts believing this is justice for ‘apostates and puppets’ but even the Taliban deny doing it in the media as they know it is and is seen by people as a heinous and disgusting crime!
El-Amarah is therefore in fact just a degenerate who glories in the death of children and his aggrandisement of this act is not even shared by the people he supposedly aligns himself with making him twice the fool.
How disgusting…why haven’t we seen this story on the national news media?