Kabul – According to a recent public accusation by former Afghan Vice President Yunus Qanuni, Taliban intelligence is behind the recent assassination of General Ikramuddin Sari and Commander Mohammad Amin Almas in Tehran.
Talking at a memorial service, Qanuni claimed that the Taliban has stepped up its Transnational Repression campaign, which has been particularly targeting senior former security officials living in exile.
He asserted that such operations are not stand-alone activities, but they are part of a planned effort to decapitate any possible leadership of the Afghan resistance in the foreign territory.
Escalation of Targeted Operations Abroad
The assassination, in Valiasr district in Tehran, has shaken the Afghan diaspora in Iran. The statement by Qanuni raises a growing concern that the Taliban has stretched across the borders, applying Transnational Repression to silence dissenters who fled Kabul after its demise.
The former VP states that the Taliban intelligence unit is targeting those who have military capability and influence to organize resistance forces, eliminating them systematically to further stabilize their grip on power by instilling fear and engaging in extrajudicial killings.
The role of foreign agents has not been officially acknowledged by the authorities of Iran, but the pressure to investigate it openly is building up.
Regional Security and Diplomatic Implications
The death of General Sari has been cited by the resistance leaders as a clear indication of how Transnational Repression is functioning with increasing impunity.
According to them, as long as the host countries fail to give a resounding diplomatic reprisal on these state-sponsored assassinations, the lives of thousands of ex-Afghan soldiers and officials will still be at risk.
As the investigation continues, the focus remains on whether the Taliban’s internal security apparatus is conducting clandestine operations on foreign soil.
Qanuni cautioned that such a trend of Transnational Repressions is likely to continue, provided the international community does not bring the de facto authorities in Kabul to accountability regarding these cross-border executions.
