2 Cases of Murder & Justice in Afghanistan.

2 Cases of Murder & Justice in Afghanistan:
My Life with the Taliban – [by Mulla Zaeef] Page 76-78:
http://kalamullah.com/Books/Life%20With%20The%20Taliban.pdf

Mawlawi Pasanai Saheb was known for his impartial judgments and rulings. Whoever was brought before him, even if they were relatives or friends – would receive the same treatment and the same judgement. He followed God’s orders as specified in the Islamic shari’a law.

I remember many of the cases we dealt with, but two in particular stick out;

Story #1:

There is a place near Pashmol called Shukur Hill where most sentences against murder cases were carried out. When a convict was led up the mountain to receive his punishment we would secure the area. Twan, also known as Qurban, had slaughtered a man with a knife in cold blood in my childhood village of Charshakha. He was brought to Shukur Hill.

Many muslim fighters had gathered there, and the father of the victim and his family were waiting for him. When Twan was brought onto the empty square the people started to beg the father of the victim for forgiveness, as was the custom in these cases.

The Ulema’ explained the virtue of forgiveness, other people offered money, and some commanders pledged weapons. One of the com- manders offered fifty Kalashnikovs and some money on behalf of the condemned man, but the father of the victim could not be convinced to forgive Twan. The on-duty personnel gave him a knife and Twan was brought to him with his hands and legs tied. The father of the victim walked over to him slowly, rolling up his sleeves. He first knelt on the ground then uttered Allahu Akbar loudly and put the knife on Twan’s neck.

Taking back the knife and raising it in the air, he started to speak. “Look! God has given me this power. No one can release you from me but God. You are the one who brutally killed my son without any lawful reason. Based on the shari’a, God has given me the right to take revenge for my dear son or to forgive you for sake of God. Forgiveness pleases God more than revenge. I forgive you, so that God

will be pleased with me. Now it is he who shall take revenge when the final day comes”.

He threw the knife away and at once people were crying out the takbir, others were firing guns and the people were rushing forward to kiss the hands and feet of the father. Someone untied the hands of Twan but he could not move or talk for a full five minutes. People

congratulated him on this unexpected chance for a new life and told him that he should devote himself to Islam and the worship of God.

“God has shown mercy. Regret your deeds and never even think of actions like these again”, he was told.

I was convinced that the man would never commit another crime, but he soon killed again. I also heard that he himself was killed in a robbery a short while later.

My Life with the Taliban [by Mulla Zaeef] – Page 75-76

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Story #2:

Another case that Mawlawi Pasanai ruled on was that of the murder of an entire family and their guest. A man called Mohammad Nabi from Girdi Jangal camp had gone to the house of the baaja or husband of the sister of his former wife. He was warmly welcomed by his wife’s sister and her husband. Another guest arrived and dinner was served when night fell and it became dark outside. Mohammad Nabi and the other guest decided to stay overnight and settled in the guestroom to sleep, while his baaja and her family retired to their rooms. When everyone was asleep, Mohammad Nabi, a trained butcher by profession, took a cleaver and beheaded the other guest in his room.

Then he proceeded through the house killing the entire family room by room; there were eleven victims in total: a woman, two men and eight children including a six-month old baby. Before he left the house, he chopped all the bodies into pieces and brought them down to the basement. He was arrested in Panjpayi Camp in Baluchistan by the Muslim fighters and brought to Kandahar, where he confessed to the crime but never explained why he did it. During the court sessions and while in prison Mohammad Nabi would often say that he should be killed, but never told us why he had butchered the family of his baaja.
More than once he said he wanted to be killed. In his dreams he could see the small children, their limbs in his hands, blood everywhere. Every night they would come to him and ask him why he had so brutally killed them. “What did we do?” they would ask him. Mohammad Nabi could not sleep; “my heart is heavy, please have mercy and kill me soon”, he often told the judge. He was condemned to death and the sentence was due to be carried out at the riverside between Kushkak and Nelgham. Relatives and friends of the family had come with their guests.

They had selected two men one from each family to avenge the deaths of their relatives. The two men were both brothers of a victim. When Mohammad Nabi was brought before them at the riverside no one asked for forgiveness. Neither the mullahs nor the people said a word, even though Mawlawi Pasanai Saheb had instructed the Ulema’ to ask for mercy and to pray for him. Not even the friends or family of Mohammad Nabi had come to collect his body. I went to Judge Maw-lawi Saheb. I asked for permission to have Mohammad Nabi perform two rak’at [2 units of prayer] and that he should be instructed to utter the kalima [testimony of Islamic belief]. With the permission of Mawlawi Saheb I went to Mohammad Nabi. I told him that the relatives had arrived and that they would avenge what he had done. Now would be the time for him to perform a last prayer towards the Ka’aba and proclaim the creed of faith. But Mohammad Nabi looked straight at me and said, “Just kill me now. I can still see those limbless children in my hands. I can’t pray or pro- claim the creed of faith”.

I was surprised and astonished by his words. I begged him to reconsider. I tried to change his mind for a long time but all he would say is, “Just kill me”. Finally Mawlawi Saheb told me to leave him alone. I was pleading with him until the very last moment when he was shot by the heirs of his victims. He died without praying or uttering the kalima. The victims’ families became ecstatic after he was shot; people screamed and threw their turbans in the air. For me, Mohammad Nabi was proof that a cruel man will die without even being able to pray or proclaim his faith. If a man is not guidedby God himself, no experience or amount of suffering will show him the right path.

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