Taliban captures and executes well-known Afghan comedian – who told jokes as they dragged him away
The day Taliban captured and executed ‘obscene’ Afghan TikTok comedian – who carried on telling jokes about the militia even as they dragged him away in Kandahar
Nazar Mohammad filmed being taken away from his home in Kandahar provinceVideo shows Taliban fighter sitting on either side of him, one with a Kalashnikov One insurgent slaps him repeatedly on the face as he makes jokes about TalibanHe was later found dead after reportedly being shot and having his throat slit
This is the moment an Afghan comedian continued mocking the Taliban as fighters from the insurgent group dragged him away from his home before later executing him by firing squad.
In a viral video filmed at the end of July, Nazar Mohammad, better known as Khasha Zwan, can be seen in the back of a car with an insurgent on either side of him – one of them brandishing a Kalashnikov machine gun.
According to Human Rights Watch, Zwan was killed by the Taliban at the end of July in Kandahar after that city fell to the jihadists.
He was known for routines that poked fun at the Taliban through song and dance, including some that were uploaded to his TikTok account.
In the video of his final moments, Mohammad continues to make jokes about the group after his capture, causing the Taliban fighter to his right to begin slapping him across the face.
The man to his left is seen laughing throughout before menacingly switching his gun for an even bigger-looking firearm.
Nazar Mohammad (pictured centre) was filmed being taken away by the Taliban from his home in Kandahar province
One Taliban brandishing a Kalashnikov can be seen in a video laughing as the comedian mocks the insurgent group
Nazar was later killed after being shot multiple times.
According to reports, photos showed him backed up against a tree and then lying on the ground with his throat cut.
The Taliban initially denied involvement in the star’s death before admitting responsibility – and confirming the two men in the car were Taliban.
The group said the suspects had been arrested and will be tried in a Taliban court.
The group alleged that Nazar, from the Kandahar province, was involved in the torture and killing of Taliban – adding that he should have faced a Taliban court instead of being immediately put to death.
Nazar previously worked for the Afghan National Police – making him a target for revenge killings – and was known for his crude jokes and funny songs.
He would regularly make fun of topics suggested by his followers – with the Taliban being no exception.
His brutal killing at the end of July sparked fears of revenge killings as Afghanistan being falling city by city to the Taliban.
Zwan left behind a wife and daughters.
After his death, Ziauddin Yousafzai, whose daughter Malala Yousafzai survived being shot in the head by Taliban militants in Pakistan in 2012 – was among those who paid tribute on social media.
Others who denounced the death included Sarwar Danesh, the Afghan vice president before the Taliban took over Kabul this month.
He said that slapping Zwan was the same as slapping all of the Afghan people and said his killing was against Afghan culture.
It was also one of the first major dents in the insurgent group’s attempt to brand itself as Taliban 2.0.
Leaders promised that no harm would come to those working for the Government, the US military or anyone associated with American organisations.
Nazar was later found dead with bullet wounds and his throat cut, according to reports
The insurgent to the left of the comedian passes his Kalashnikov to someone outside the car before being handed a much bigger firearm, while the fighter to his right appears to shout instructions to the driver
However the list of alleged atrocities and human rights abuses has only mounted in recent weeks.
Human rights group Amnesty International revealed last week that Taliban fighters massacred nine ethnic Hazara men after taking control of the country’s Ghazni province last month, with eyewitnesses giving harrowing accounts of the killings.
Six men were shot and three were tortured to death, including one man who was strangled with his own scarf and had his arm muscles sliced off during the atrocity, which took place between July 4-6 in the village of Mundarakht, Malistan district, the group revealed.
Despite the organisation’s claims it would not seek vengeance on those who fought their tyranny, one regional police chief who stood against them was executed in cold blood by the jihadist group, reports say.
Shocking video footage being circulated on the internet shows the kneeling handcuffed and blindfolded figure of General Haji Mullah Achakzai, chief of Badghis Province near Herat, being gunned down in a hail of bullets.
The grey-haired commander was reported to have been arrested by the Taliban after they seized the area, near the Turkmenistan border, in their lightning advance late last week.
The disturbing clip was re-tweeted by former BBC Persia journalist Nasrin Nawa after it emerged on the feed of an apparent resistance group to the Taliban called @PanjshirProvince.
General Achakzai, in his early 60s, was an avowed enemy of the Taliban and known as a seasoned fighter in the long-running conflict between the group and the forces of the Afghan civil government, which fell at the weekend.
According to reports, the governor and police chief of Laghman Province near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan have also been detained, with their fate to be decided by the Taliban high command.
The brutal execution follows numerous reports of Taliban patrols going door-to-door in some areas and taking men of fighting age into detention.
And while Taliban militants searched for a journalist for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, one of the reporter’s family members was shot dead, according to local reports .
Now the jihadis are intensifying their hunt for those who dared to work with UK, US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, a confidential report to the UN reveals.
Jihadists are going door-to-door to threaten relatives of civil servants, interpreters and other consular staff, while other militants are even stopping people outside Kabul airport.
