Saudi Gazette report

KABUL — A video clip showing a popular Afghan comedian being forcibly taken away in a vehicle with a gunman thrashing him before his murder has gone viral on social media, leaving users deeply shocked and anguished over the gory incident.

According to local reports, Nazar Mohammad, known as Khasha Zwan, was found dead last Thursday after being taken out by gunmen from his home in the Kandahar province on Thursday night.

His relatives blamed the Taliban for the attack who rejected their involvement. But the Taliban’s denial is being taken with a pinch of salt as the militant movement currently controls large swathes of Afghan territories and is constantly targeting security forces and civilians.

Expressing his deep anguish over the brutal killing, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka M. Ashraf Haidari tweeted, saying: “The extrajudicial execution by Taliban of Khasha Zwan, an innocent Afghan comedian, has broken the heart of a nation, the Afghan nation, so profoundly that they would never, ever forgive Taliban and their state sponsor. Ever!”

Many other Afghan officials voiced their profound grief and frustration over the incident.

“Taliban executed this poor Comedian Khasha Zwan that it’s “HARAAM” in Islam to make people laugh. The video is moments before his death,” tweeted Shama Junejo, a human rights activist from Pakistan, who is currently living in the United Kingdom.

Habib Khan, an Afghanistan-based journalist who once worked with The Wall Street Journal remarked: “The extrajudicial killing of Khasha Zwan has hurt the soul of Afghan nation. Justice must be served for Khasha and all those slaughtered by the Pakistani proxies in Afghanistan.