3 arrested over recent assassinations: Saleh

KABUL (Pajhwok): First vice president, Amrullah Saleh on Saturday said that three individuals were arrested in connection to the assassination of Yousuf Rashid and a pilot in capital Kabul.

Yousuf Rashid, head of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FFEFA) and his driver were killed in an armed attack in Kabul city on December 23.

A pilot was killed in a similar attack in Kabul city last Thursday.

First VP, Amrullah Saleh in a Facebook post today said that two of three people involved in the assassination of Rashid were arrested.

He said that more information about the detention would be provided by the Ministry of Interior.

However, Tariq Arian, a spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, said that three people were arrested in connection of the murder. He said that other people were also involved in the incident and they were under police chase.

“One of the murderers was a classmate of Yousuf Khan’s son; the motive of the murderer to become a classmate of the victim’s son was to implement his plot. These terrorists are members of a small Taliban group which operate under alias name, Muslimyar in Logar…”

He asked for the execution of the detainees after being investigated by relevant organs.

Saleh praised officers of the 11^th police district of Kabul for the detention of the accused.

This comes as no groups have so far claimed responsibility for the attack on Rashid and the Taliban said that only military people were their target, not journalists or civil society activists.

On the other hand, Saleh said that a person named Habib aka Ghorzang was also arrested in connection of the murder of Ghulam Dastagir, a pilot of Afghan Air Force.

“The silent pistol which was used in the attack was discovered in the house of the murderer. There were also photos of the victim in his phone so he used them to be accurate in his target,” he said.

Targeted attacks on civil society activists and journalists have recently increased as seven journalists and a number of civil society activists have been killed in the last two months.

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