Pictured: Relatives carry the body of a female judges shot dead by unknown gunmen in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
Two female judges from Afghanistan’s Supreme Court were killed by unidentified gunmen on the morning of January 17, police said.
The two judges have not yet been named. The attack, which took place at around 8.30 AM, also resulted in the judges’ driver being injured. The case is being investigated by security forces.
A spokesman for the Taliban said that its fighters were not involved in the attack.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attacks on civilians by the Taliban and other militant groups. President Ghani said “terror, horror and crime” was not a solution to Afghanistan’s problem and asked the Taliban to accept “a permanent ceasefire”.
While government and Taliban representatives have been holding peace talks in Qatar, there has been a wave of assassinations in Kabul and other cities in Afghanistan in recent months. Journalists, activists and government officials have been targeted. Although the Taliban has denied involvement in some of these attacks, it has said that its fighters would continue to “eliminate” prominent government figures, though not journalists or civil society members.
Escalating violence has complicated the U.S.-brokered peace talks taking place in Doha as Washington is withdrawing troops from the war-stricken nation. The number of U.S troops in Afghanistan has been reduced to 2,500, the lowest level of American forces there since 2001.
Negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government are only likely to make substantive progress once U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office and makes his Afghan policy known.