PESHAWAR: The Taliban fighters have shot killed a famous folk singer, Fawad Andarabi in Adarab district of Baghlan Province after the group outlawed music.
His son Jawad Andrabi was quoted by the Associated Press saying, “The Taliban have dragged him from his home and shot in the head.” He informed that earlier the Taliban visited his home for search and even drunk tea with the singer.” Jawad lamented that his father’s only crime was that he entertained the war-weary-people of Afghanistan. He said that he is seeking justice for his father, and a local Taliban council has promised to punish the killers. The Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid informed the media that he did not have details of the incident but will investigate it and will bring the perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice.
Fawad Andrabi used to play Ghechak and sing folk songs about Afghanistan. There are several videos of the artist on video sharing site YouTube. In one of the video, he could be seen singing a folk song among the mountains. The lyrics of the songs were, “We are a proud nation. There is no country like Afghanistan in the world. These beautiful valleys are the land of our ancestors.”
The UN special envoy for cultural rights, Karima Bennoune, on her Twitter account expressed grave concern over the reports of the terrible killing of singer Fawad Andarabi. “We urge all governments to call on the Taliban to respect the human rights of artists.” Amnesty International’s Dr. Agnès Callamard also condemned the killing, saying that “There is mounting evidence that the Taliban of 2021 is the same as the intolerant, violent, repressive Taliban of 2001.”
Before the taking the control of Afghanistan, the Taliban fighters have killed a famous comedian Nazar Mohammad, well-known as “Khasha Zwan” in Kandahar. The Taliban spokesman vowed to bring his killers to justice but so far no has been been punished his brutal murder.