Taliban threaten to avenge killings in Dash-e-Archi airstrike

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: Demanding impartial investigations into Dasht-e-Archi airstrike that killed and wounded dozens of civilians, the Taliban have threatened to avenge the death of seminary students.

“On the instructions of Americans, the Kabul administration’s troops bombarded a civilian gathering arranged in connection with the graduation of religious scholars and Hufaz at a seminary in the Daftano area of Dasht-e-Archi district, Kunduz province. Upto 200 civilians, most of them religious scholars, hufaz and children were killed and wounded in the heart-wrenching incident that badly hurt the sentiments of the Afghan Muslim nation,” the Taliban said in a statement Thursday.

Condemning the airstrike on the seminary as a big crime, the Taliban vowed to take strict revenge from the perpetrators of the incident.

“The Islamic Emirate again condemns this big crime in strongest words and promises to take strict revenge from its perpetrators. The Afghan mujahid nation in general and the Islamic Emirate in particular, rendered huge sacrifices for the defense of Islam and assures the nation that they would not show any laxity in the protection and defense of religious sanctities and drag the perpetrators of these unpardonable crimes to justice,” the statement said.

The Taliban urged all the impartial international human rights organizations and institutions to send an independent commission to the area and conduct impartial investigations into the incident.

The Taliban also demanded media and journalists’ organizations to send their investigators to the area.

They promised to provide protection to the probe teams.

Three days ago, Afghan air force bombed a seminary in the Dasht-e-Archi district of Kunduz province, killing and wounding dozens of people most of them civilians.

Afghan authorities, however, said 18 key commanders of Taliban red unit were killed and 12 others wounded in the airstrike, a claim rejected by Taliban as false.

The Afghan government also admitted that several civilians were also killed and wounded in the airstrike.

President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani formed a commission to probe claims of civilian casualties from the airstrike.