The Taliban are pinning chilling ‘night letters’ to the doors of those they accuse of ‘working for the crusaders’.
The notes order their victims to attend a Taliban-convened court. Failure to do so will result in the death penalty.
One of those to receive a warning was Naz, a 34-year-old father-of-six whose construction company helped the UK military build roads in Helmand and the runway at Camp Bastion.
He had applied for sanctuary in Britain under ARAP, the Afghan relocation programme, but had been rejected.
Naz said yesterday: ‘The letter was official and stamped by the Taliban. It is a clear message that they want to kill me. If I attend the court, I will be punished with my life.
If I don’t, they will kill me – that is why I am in hiding, trying to find a way to escape. But I need help.’
Another victim, a former British military translator, was warned he was a ‘spy of the infidel’ and must give himself up or pay with his life.
A third night letter warned the brother of an interpreter that he had been sentenced to death for sheltering him while a fourth was found in the shoe of an ex-British military translator as he left prayers at a mosque.
The letters are a traditional Afghan method of intimidation. They were used by mujahideen fighters during the Soviet occupation and then by the Taliban as both a propaganda tool and a threat. Often used in rural communities, they are now being widely circulated in cities.
Those received by former British translators are designed to both spread fear and compliance with Taliban directives … (Read more)
Sponsored Links
Comments are closed.