Reza Khan (died October 8, 2007) was charged on August 5, 2004, in Kabul, Afghanistan of murder, rape, and robbery involving four journalists on November 19, 2001. Khan was also accused of cutting off the noses and ears of four Afghan men due to their short beards. [1] Khan was convicted in November 2004 and executed in Afghanistan on October 8, 2007. [2] Khan also confessed to killing his own wife in Pakistan. [1]
The journalists (Harry Burton, Maria Grazia Cutuli, Azizullah Haidari and Julio Fuentes) were traveling in a convoy from Jalalabad to Kabul when a group of armed men dragged them from their cars and murdered them. [3]
Khan confessed to being one of 11 people who stopped the vehicles, and to personally killing one of the foreign men and raping Cutuli; he said they got their orders from Taliban leader Maulawi Latif.
Faryadi Sarwar Zardad is an Afghan former warlord and mujahideen leader. In 2005, he was convicted in the United Kingdom, for conspiring to take hostages and conspiring to torture during the 1990s in Afghanistan.
Yang Xinhai, also known as Yang Zhiya, and Yang Liu, was a Chinese serial killer who confessed to committing 67 murders and 23 rapes between 1999 and 2003. He was sentenced to death and executed. He was dubbed the "Monster Killer" by the media. He is the most prolific known serial killer in China since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Afghan members of the LGBT community are forced to keep their gender identity and sexual orientation secret, in fear of violence and the death penalty. The religious nature of the country has limited any opportunity for public discussion, with any mention of homosexuality and related terms deemed taboo.
Human rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted, especially since Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021. Women's rights and freedom are severely restricted as they are banned from most public spaces and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven. Taliban's policies towards women are usually termed as gender apartheid. Minority groups such as Hazaras face persecution and eviction from their lands. Authorities have used physical violence, raids, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances of activists and political opponents.
The Taliban insurgency began after the group's fall from power during the 2001 War in Afghanistan. The Taliban forces fought against the Afghan government, led by President Hamid Karzai, and later by President Ashraf Ghani, and against a US-led coalition of forces that has included all members of NATO; the 2021 Taliban offensive resulted in the collapse of the government of Ashraf Ghani. The private sector in Pakistan extends financial aid to the Taliban, contributing to their financial sustenance.
Pacha Khan Zadran is a militia leader and a politician in the southeast of Afghanistan. He was a former anti-Soviet fighter and militia leader who played a role in driving the Taliban from Paktia Province in the 2001 invasion, with American backing. He subsequently assumed the governorship of the province. In 2002, he engaged in a violent conflict with rival tribal leaders in the province over the Governorship of the province, shelling Gardez City and obstructing two separate appointed governors sent by Hamid Karzai.
The Saur Revolution or Sowr Revolution, also known as the April Revolution or the April Coup, was staged on 27–28 April 1978 by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and overthrew Afghan president Mohammed Daoud Khan, who had himself taken power in the 1973 Afghan coup d'état and established an autocratic one-party system in the country. Daoud and most of his family were executed at the Arg in the capital city of Kabul by Khalqi military officers, after which his supporters were also purged and killed. The successful PDPA uprising resulted in the creation of a socialist Afghan government that was closely aligned with the Soviet Union, with Nur Muhammad Taraki serving as the PDPA's General Secretary of the Revolutionary Council. Saur or Sowr is the Dari-language name for the second month of the Solar Hijri calendar, during which the events took place.
The following items form a partial timeline of the War in Afghanistan. For events prior to October 7, 2001, see 2001 in Afghanistan.
Events from the year 2007 in Afghanistan.
Zakia Zaki was an Afghan journalist for the Afghan Radio Peace (Sada-i-Sulh) station north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Zaki was the first Afghani journalist to speak out against the Taliban after the US forces initiated the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), while she also championed other causes like gender equality and women's rights in Afghanistan. Her murder was seen as part of a series of recent attacks against high-profile Afghan women.
Kidnapping and hostage taking has become a common occurrence in Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Kidnappers include Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters and common criminal elements.
Harry Burton was an Australian journalist and cameraman who was kidnapped by the Taliban on the highway to Kabul, Afghanistan and then murdered. Three other journalists suffered the same fate.
Aziz Ullah Haidari was a Reuter's correspondent and photo-journalist in Pakistan. On 19 November 2001, he, along with three other journalists, were kidnapped and murdered by the Taliban on the highway of Sarobi area situated between Jalalabad and Kabul in Afghanistan.
On January 16, 2010, the United States Department of Defense complied with a court order and made public a heavily redacted list of the detainees held in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility. Detainees were initially held in primitive, temporary quarters, in what was originally called the Bagram Collection Point, from late 2001. Detainees were later moved to an indoor detention center until late 2009, when newly constructed facilities were opened.
Capital punishment in Afghanistan is legal and could be carried out secretly or publicly. The convict could be hanged or shot to death. Stoning, amputation, and flogging were also sometimes used as a method for punishment, especially during the late 1990s. Public executions have existed throughout Afghanistan's history. They have continued with the Taliban returning to power in August 2021. Some executions were recently condemned by the United Nations. The capital offenses in Afghanistan generally include heinous crimes such as mass murder and are governed by Sharia, along with civil laws.
Maria Grazia Cutuli was an Italian journalist who worked as a reporter with the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. She was killed while on assignment in Afghanistan where she was covering the US military invasion following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. She was murdered between Jalalabad and Kabul with three other journalists. Cutuli was the first female and first Italian journalist to be killed during the War in Afghanistan in 2001.
Julio Fuentes Serrano was a Spanish war correspondent for newspaper El Mundo. On 19 November 2001, along with Maria Grazia Cutuli, Italian correspondent from Il Corriere della Sera, Australian cameraman Harry Burton and Afghan photograph Azizula Haidari, he was kidnapped and murdered by the Taliban in the Sarobi area on the highway between Jalalabad and Kabul in Afghanistan.
War crimes in Afghanistan covers the period of conflict from 1979 to the present. Starting with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, 40 years of civil war in various forms has wracked Afghanistan. War crimes have been committed by all sides.
The following is an outline of the series of events that led up the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021).