Late Afghan Taliban spokesman’s sister shot dead in Nangarhar

PESHAWAR: The sister of the late spokesman of the Afghan Taliban group, Dr Mohammad Hanif, was killed in a night-time raid on her house in Chaprihar district in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday-Sunday night. Taliban sources said the raid by Afghan security forces took place at 1 am during the night in Lalma village in Chaprihar district. They said the lady resisted the soldiers when they tried to enter her house and fired at them with a pistol. They added that she was eventually shot dead with a laser gun. According to the Taliban sources, this lady had lost her husband Mohammad Rahim and son Zakirullah in a previous raid by the security forces on their house in November 2008. Her brother Dr Mohammad Hanif, whose real name was Mulla Abdul Haq and was the Afghan Taliban spokesman, was also killed in that raid. Taliban sources termed her a martyr and criticized the government forces for killing a woman. Meanwhile, the Afghan Islamic Press quoted the Nangarhar Governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khugiyani as saying that gunmen shot dead the woman in her house.