It is with deep regret that the AIHRC announces that its employees lost their lives when their car was targeted by an IED in Kabul this morning, Saturday, 27 June, 2020. They were Fatima Khalil, a Donor Liaison Officer and Jawid Folad, a driver. They were traveling in a Commission shuttle taking them to the office early this morning when the vehicle was struck by an IED at Butkhak Square, District, 12.

AHIRC sends deepest condolences to the families of these respected colleagues. The Commission is shocked by their killing which goes against the teachings of Islam, the Constitution, and International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

Ms Khalil was a young human rights defender at the beginning of her career. That she will not be able to fulfill her enormous potential is a tragedy. Mr Folad was one of the Commission�s longest serving and loyal drivers.

We condemn such a heinous attack on our employees in the strongest possible terms. As of now, no group has claimed the responsibility of the attack and the perpetrators have not been identified yet. Those responsible should be identified after an investigation and brought to justice for committing this terrible crime.

This is not the first time that Commission staff have been targeted and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Last September, Abdul Samad Ameri, the Acting Head of the Ghor Provincial Office was abducted on the Kabul-Ghor highway in Maidan Wardak Province and killed two days later by gunfire.

In previous years other AIHRC personnel have also lost their lives in targeted attacks. This forms a pattern of attacks on a constitutionally mandated national human rights institution that is unparalleled. It is intolerable. In the context of armed conflict deliberately killing human rights defenders is a war crime.

AIHRC assures all Afghans that it remains committed to promoting and protecting human rights in Afghanistan.