The incident took place last night in a rural area of the Surkhrod district, in Nangarhar province.
At least two people were killed and nine others injured in eastern Afghanistan after Taliban fighters opened fire on wedding guests for playing music, official sources and eyewitnesses reported Saturday.
The incident took place last night in a rural area of the Surkhrod district, in Nangarhar province.
“Two wedding guests died and another nine were injured,” the regional director of the Taliban’s department of culture and information, Hanif Nangarhari, told Efe.
He claimed that the shooting took place when hundreds of residents were gathered for the ceremony, but noted that the identity of the attackers is unknown.
However, a Taliban official who requested anonymity told Efe that the attack was carried out by fundamentalist fighters in the area, after a discussion with the wedding guests about the music.
“Two members of the (Taliban) security forces have been detained and are being investigated,” he said.
Rauf, a resident of the area and an eyewitness to the event, explained to Efe that the fundamentalists arrived at the wedding around 10:30 at night.
“The men turned off the music player, but (the Taliban) opened fire on the guests indiscriminately killing two people and wounding six others,” he said.
Following the incident, locals tried to evacuate the injured in a car to a nearby hospital.
But, Rauf explained, after trying to pass a Taliban checkpoint without stopping the vehicle, a different group of fighters opened fire again and three people were injured.
The main spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, told a news conference in Kabul that they are investigating what happened.
“No one among the ranks of the Islamic Emirate (as the Taliban interim government calls itself) has the right to avoid music, except the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, and only through prayers,” he said. Mujahid.
This is the first event of this type to be publicized since the fundamentalists took control of the country.
The Taliban even banned music when they ruled the country between 1996 and 2001, in addition to relegating women to the home based on their strict interpretation of Islam and prohibiting them from working or going to school, something that has not happened openly so far.
Although music has not yet been officially banned in Afghanistan, the vast majority of the Taliban consider it to be banned by Islam.
Afghan weddings, which can host hundreds of people in large rooms, have been silenced for fear of Islamists. (I)
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