Taliban kill pro-Afghan govt cleric, says governor

[michael_ital]

Taliban kill pro-Afghan govt cleric, says governor

Updated: 4:42 a.m. ET July 9, 2005
KHOST, Afghanistan - Taliban militants have killed a senior pro-government cleric, the third such killing in just over a month, a provincial governor said on Saturday.

Agha Jan, the senior Islamic cleric in the southeastern province of Paktika, was stabbed to death along with his wife at his home on Friday evening, Paktika Governor Gulabuddin Mangal said.

"It was the Taliban who did it," Mangal told Reuters, adding that four suspected Taliban members had been captured in connection with the killings.

Jan, the head of the influential Ulema Council in Paktika, had preached in favour of President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government and U.S.-led forces who overthrew the fundamentalist Taliban government in late 2001, Mangal said.

Taliban officials could not be immediately contacted for comment, but the guerrillas have taken responsibility for the assassination of several pro-government clerics in the past.

The killing came less than a week after suspected Taliban guerrillas shot dead an Ulema Council member near the southern city of Kandahar.

In late May, gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead another member of the national council, prominent anti-Taliban cleric Mawlavi Abdullah Fayaz, also in Kandahar.

A suicide bombing of a mosque in the city during a memorial service for Fayaz on June 1 killed 20 people.

The attacks have appeared to be part of a stepped up campaign by the Taliban and their militant allies to spread instability ahead of Sept. 18 parliamentary elections.

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[1nemansquad]

DEPENDS

[Adanna]

The talibans (and all other afghans) are products of their society. Kill first..and then (if ever)ponder.

But hey..who could have ever guessed that they would be better for Afghanistan?

[Aiman]

Bismillah,

.

He was indeed a traitor by supporting the zionist kuffaar and its supporters. If he was against the Taliban he should have kept his mouth shut and be independent instead siding with the zionist government then he would have been safe from the Taliban militant.

[LionHeart-112]

I don't care how many years of Islamic studies you have under your macawiis or turban, if u are on the payroll of american supported regimes, then u should DIE.....SO my answer is it DEPENDS.