Taliban armed group has taken responsibility for the killing of a comic Nazar Mohammad, better known as Khasha Zwan, this week in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar. A video of two men slapping and abusing Khasha Zwan, spread widely on social media. He was later killed, shot multiple times. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid acknowledged that the two men were Taliban, reported Aljazeera. The men have been arrested and will be tried, Mujahid said. He alleged that the comic, from the southern part of Kandahar province, was also a member of the Afghan National Police & had been implicated in the torture & killing of Taliban. Mujahid said the Taliban should have arrested the comic and brought him before a Taliban court, instead of killing him, reported Aljazeera. Mohammad was not a TV personality but would post his routines on TikTok. He was known for crude funny songs, jokes, poking fun at himself. He would often make fun of topics thrown at him from fans. The brutality of the killing heightened fears of revenge attacks. It also undermined the Taliban’s assurances that no harm would come to people who worked for the government, with the US military or with US organisations. Farid Mamundzay, Afghanistan’s ambassador to India said, “I wish this joker's death was a joke.” One tweet said, “Extremist minds never accept entertaining minds!”
