Taliban shot dead Afghan folk singer in Andarabi valley; no country for musicians, says family
Singer Fawad Andarabi was shot dead as the United States is in its final stage of a historic airlift that saw lakhs evacuated from Kabul’s international airport.
FollowAccording to The Associated Press report, a Taliban fighter shot dead an Afghan folk singer in a restive mountain province under unclear circumstances, his family said Sunday. The killing reignited fear and concerns among activists that the insurgents would return to their 20-year-old oppressive rule in the country after toppling the government.
Singer Fawad Andarabi was shot dead as the United States is in its final stage of a historic airlift that saw lakhs evacuated from Kabul’s international airport, where chaos prevailed ever since the Taliban took over the Afghan capital two weeks ago. After an Islamic State affiliate’s suicide attack that killed over 180 people, the Taliban increased its security around the airfield as Britain ended its evacuation flights Saturday.
The US military cargo planes continued to evacuate people from the airport Sunday, as the Tuesday deadline earlier set by President Joe Biden to withdraw all troops from America’s longest war inches closer.
Also read: Taliban cuts off internet in Panjshir valley as resistance forces fight back
Upheaval in Andarabi valley since Taliban takeover
The shooting Friday of the folk singer came in the Andarabi Valley for which he was named, an area of Baghlan province some 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Kabul. The valley had seen upheaval since the Taliban takeover, with some districts in the area coming under the control of militia fighters opposed to the Taliban rule. The Taliban say they have since retaken those areas, though neighboring Panjshir in the Hindu Kush mountains remains the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces not under its control.
"He was innocent, only entertaining people": Son
The Taliban previously came out to Andarabi’s home and searched it, even drinking tea with the musician, his son Jawad Andarabi told The Associated Press. But something changed on Friday.
“He was innocent, a singer who only was entertaining people,” his son said. “They shot him in the head on the farm.”
His son said he wanted justice and that a local Taliban council promised to punish his father’s killer. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the insurgents would investigate the incident, but had no other details on the killing.
Also read: 2 journalists, 2 athletes among victims killed in Kabul Airport terror attack
Songs about Afghanistan
Andarabi played the ghichak, a bowed lute, and sang traditional songs about his birthplace, his people and Afghanistan as a whole. A video online showed him at one performance, sitting on a rug with the mountains of home surrounding him as he sang.
“There is no country in the world like my homeland, a proud nation,” he sang. “Our beautiful valley, our great-grandparents’ homeland.”
Human rights of artists
Karima Bennoune, the United Nations special rapporteur on cultural rights, wrote on Twitter that she had “grave concern” over Andarabi’s killing.
“We call on governments to demand the Taliban respect the #humanrights of #artists,” she wrote.
Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, similarly decried the killing.
“There is mounting evidence that the Taliban of 2021 is the same as the intolerant, violent, repressive Taliban of 2001,” she wrote on Twitter. “20 years later. Nothing has changed on that front.”
(This was first published in Associated Press on August 29, 2021)
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