Two people were beheaded in western Afghanistan on Monday, a week after they were kidnapped with 33 others for apparently supporting the Afghan government, and a police chief in the south of the country was killed by a bomb, officials said.
The beheaded bodies were sent back to their families in Mughul Abad village in western Farah province, a day after 16 of those kidnapped had been released, said village elder Hajji Saydo Jan. The fate of the rest of the group was unclear. “These people are ordinary people in the village, but the kidnappers said they had a connection with the government,” Saydo Jan told Reuters by phone. The Taliban said it had no information about the kidnappings, which officials said took place on July 11. Provincial security official Abdul Rashid confirmed that two people had been beheaded and 16 people released. He also said another person had been killed on the same day of the kidnapping. The incident comes as foreign troops begin to hand over security control to Afghan security forces. On Sunday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) handed security control over to Afghan forces in central Bamiyan province, marking the start of a gradual transition process that will end with all foreign combat troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
