Remembering Northern Leaders Killed by Taleban

This radio piece looks at an incident in the late 1990s in which 18 Afghan community and tribal leaders were killed while trying to negotiate a peace deal with the Taleban.

At the time, the Taleban were in government but had not gained control of the whole of northern Afghanistan. They believed people in Sar-e Pol province were assisting the “Northern Alliance”, the group of armed militias still holding out against the Taleban. The 18 leaders hoped to come to terms and protect their communities from further attack, and their deaths made this impossible.

Said Zahir Adili is an IWPR-trained radio reporter in Afghanistan.

This radio report, in Dari, was produced under IWPR’s Afghan Witness Project, designed to promote transitional justice.