Militants from ISIS terrorist group have beheaded three brothers, all working in the medical profession, in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, an official told Reuters on Monday.
Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar, the main stronghold of ISIS in Afghanistan, said the brothers were killed in Chaparhar district on Saturday night.
The eldest brother Nisar Tareliwal, 27, was a doctor at a private clinic, the middle brother Nayeem, 24, was working as a vaccine campaigner and the youngest Abdul Wahab, 19, was a medical student.
Khogyani said the father of the victims, a doctor was beheaded last year by ISIS, which has acquired a reputation for brutality in the province, beheading prisoners on a number of occasions.
In a separate incident, ISIS kidnapped 11 farmers in Rodat district of Nangarhar province, although they later released two of them.
There was no claim by ISIS about the two incidents.
Nangarhar, on the porous border with Pakistan, has become a stronghold for ISIS, generally known as Daesh in Afghanistan, which has grown to become one of the country’s most dangerous militant groups since it appeared around the start of 2015.
Lal Mohammed Durrani, deputy chairman of the provincial council in Nangarhar, said the abduction took place when the farmers were working in poppy fields.
The process to harvest poppy crop has kicked off in provinces across Afghanistan, the world’s top opium producer.
Meanwhile, grieving Afghans buried their loved ones in Kabul on Monday amid growing anger over a suicide attack on a voter registration center in the city that killed at least 57 people including children and wounded more than 100.
The bomber blew himself up on Sunday morning in a large crowd queuing to collect their national ID certificates so they could register to vote in long-delayed legislative elections scheduled for October.
The force of the blast, which was claimed by ISIS, caused carnage in the street in the heavily Shi'ite-populated neighborhood in the west of the Afghan capital.
Pools of blood and body parts mixed with shattered glass, blood-stained ID documents and passport-sized photos on the ground.
Anguish turned to anger on social media as ordinary Afghans blamed the Kabul government for failing to protect its people – a constant refrain after such attacks.
"They (the government) arrests them and then releases them to kill innocent people," Ahmad Ahmadi wrote on Facebook.
A Facebook user called Aminullah posted: "This government is intentionally creating chaos to continue their term illegally. The only way forward is to vote and get rid of this corrupt government."
