Taliban executes famous Afghani musician due to ban on music

Fawad Andarabi, an Afghan folk singer, has been shot dead by the Taliban in the Baghlan province over the weekend.

“He was innocent, a singer who was only entertaining people,” his son Jawad said. “They shot him in the head on the farm.”

The Taliban had visited Fawad’s home and searched it, Jawad said. They even had tea with him but things changed on Friday, August 27.

The shooting took place in the Andarabi Valley which the family is named after. It is located in the Baghlan province roughly 100km north of Kabul. There has been an upheaval in the area since the Taliban’s return to power.

Jawad demanded justice for his father and said that a local Taliban council promised to punish the musician’s killers.

READ ALSO: Taliban bans music, mandates chaperones for travelling women

“Taliban’s brutality continues in Andarab,” Afghanistan’s former interior minister Masoud Andarabi wrote on Saturday.

“Today, they brutally killed folkloric singer, Fawad Andarabi, who simply was bringing joy to this valley and its people. As he sang here, ‘our beautiful valley….land of our forefathers…’ [we] will not submit to Taliban’s brutality.”

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the shooting will be investigated. He claimed to have no details on the killing.

Initially, the Taliban’s music ban only impacted public spaces, and musicians themselves seemed safe from persecution.

However, just days later, that assumption is no longer safe following the unexpected killing of the Afghan folk singer Fawad Andarabi.

According to the singer’s family, Andarabi was initially assured of his safety by members of the Taliban.

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