Following the killing of a former Afghan commander in Tehran, the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) has called on Iran to take urgent measures, in line with international law, to protect former Afghan military personnel.
The group blamed the Taliban for the assassination of Ikramuddin Sari and urged Iranian authorities to identify and punish those responsible.
In a statement issued on Thursday in response to the killing of Sari, a former Afghan government commander, and Mohammad Amin Almas, another former Afghan serviceman, in Tehran, the AFF said opponents of the Taliban are being targeted even while in exile and vulnerable by what it described as the “deceptive and criminal Taliban group”.
The statement described the killings as a “criminal, inhumane and terrorist” act carried out by the Taliban as part of what it called a policy of physically eliminating former military personnel.
According to the AFF, the Taliban views former security forces as a potential threat to its “illegitimate and unlawful rule” and, over the past four years, has recognised no geographical, religious, moral or legal boundaries in pursuing, threatening, assassinating and eliminating them.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front also called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to halt the deportation of former Afghan military personnel, saying documented reports show that the Taliban have detained, tortured and killed individuals who were deported.
Ikramuddin Sari, the former police chief of Takhar province under Afghanistan’s previous government, and Mohammad Amin Almas, a former serviceman, were killed on Wednesday night in Tehran’s Vali-e Asr area. Iranian authorities have not yet issued an official comment on the incident.
The AFF warned that, as what it described as a “shared bastion of former military personnel”, it considers itself responsible for the security and dignity of its members and will not remain silent in the face of what it called the crime. The group said it would deliver an appropriate and responsible response to what it described as a “brutal Taliban act” inside the country.
The anti-Taliban group also called on the United Nations, in line with its legal obligations and the 1951 Refugee Convention, to facilitate the immediate and safe transfer of former Afghan military personnel from Iran to safe countries.
The statement warned that ignoring the security of former Afghan servicemen would not only lead to a humanitarian catastrophe but would also pave the way for the spread of cross-border terrorism and regional instability.
