Headless Body of Murdered Driver Returned

The body of Sayed Agha, the driver who was kidnapped along with an Italian journalist in Helmand and later killed, has been brought back to his native Lashkar Gah for burial, say relatives.



Sayed Agha was killed some days after he and his colleagues - Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and Ajmal Naqshbandi, a journalist and translator - were seized by the Taleban in Nadali, a district of Helmand not far from the provincial capital Lashkar Gah on March 5. (For more on this, see “Afghan Victims Go Unnoticed in Kidnap Release”, ARR No. 246, March 20.)



According to Mastrogiacomo’s published account, Sayed Agha was beheaded and his body dumped in a river in Garmseer, a district approximately 50 kilometres south of the capital.



The body was subsequently retrieved from the water, but the head has not been found.



“We still do not know where the head is,” said Khan Zaman, a cousin of the victim. “Local people have told us that they don’t know, either. The Taleban killed him somewhere else and then put the body in the river. The body didn’t float away, and kept coming back to the riverside, so they left it there.”



Relatives of the slain man attempted to bring the body back to Lashkar Gah for burial, but were detained by the Taleban. A delegation of elders negotiated their release, but the Taleban refused to let them take the body, and would not allow it to be buried. (For more on this, see “Taleban Voice New Demands for Driver’s Body”, ARR No. 247, March 21.)



According to Zaman, a cousin of the victim, people in Garmseer defied the Taleban and buried the body locally. Afghan tradition requires interment to take place as soon as possible.



Finally, on March 24, the Taleban gave permission for the family to disinter the body and bring it home for burial.



“None of the family knows that the body has no head,” said Zaman. “We haven’t shown it to the family. The only people who know are those who went to bring the body back. We are still trying to find the head.”



Sayed Agha, 36, owned a shop and was married with five children, the youngest of whom, was born a day after the kidnapping. He sometimes worked as a driver for foreign journalists visiting Helmand province.



Amid the media interest in the foreign journalist’s safe release, many local people were angered that their own government appeared to show little interest in the fate of Sayed Agha, an Afghan.



IWPR has recently begun a journalism training programme in Helmand province. This story was compiled from reports written by the trainees.