Australian Sayed Habib Musawi ‘tortured, killed by Taliban’
AUSTRALIAN officials are trying to confirm reports a dual citizen has been tortured and killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The family of 56-year-old Sydney resident Sayed Habib Musawi have told the Guardian Australia his body was found on Tuesday with signs he was tortured before being killed.
The ABC reports Mr Musawi was was pulled off a bus by Taliban militants between Kabul and Ghazni province, where he was visiting family.
Reportedly tortured and killed by the Taliban … Sydney resident Sayed Habib Musawi. Source: Facebook
Ghazni’s deputy governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi said Mr Musawi was targeted for being an Australian citizen.
“Of course the reason is that he was an Afghan-Australian,” Mr Ahmadi told the ABC’s AM program today.
“He didn’t do anything besides that – he didn’t do anything wrong, he wasn’t a criminal, he wasn’t involved in government activities.
Mr Musawi had lived in Australia since 2000. Source: Supplied
Mr Musawi had lived in Australia since 2000 and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing his family with consular assistance. “The Australian Embassy in Kabul continues to seek to confirm reports an Australian-Afghan dual national has been killed in Afghanistan,” a department spokesman told AAP.
“The area where these events reportedly occurred is contested by the Taliban and it will be difficult to obtain definitive and official confirmation of the man’s death from the Afghanistan government.”
Mr Musawi’s 23-year-old son Nemat Musawi told ABC radio this morning that the family was “devastated”.
“It seems like it was all set up, because they just stopped the bus on the way to Ghazni and then they just went straight to my dad,” he said.
“Everyone has been in shock, it’s just unbelievable,” Mr Musawi’s daughter Kubra Musawi told the Guardian.“He’s an Australian citizen and yet nothing’s happened yet.
Ms Musawi, who lives in the Sydney suburb of Berala, says she wants DFAT to “find out how the Taliban knew how [her] dad was going back to Kabul”.
Habib’s destination … an aerial view of Ghazni, considered to be in one of the most volatile regions of Afghanistan. Picture: Shah Marai Source: AFP
“He wasn’t anything to do with the government there. They just wanted to stop him coming back to Australia. I don’t want anyone else to experience this. Every minute we think of my brother’s family who are still there, I can’t study or work because of the stress of it.”
Habib’s wife and youngest son, who lives in Melbourne, travelled to his funeral in Jaghori, where he was buried.
Afghanistan remains listed as a “do not travel” destination under Australian government advice to travellers.
Our shock-jock hate mongers like Andrew Bolt put a target on this woman’s back that cried Muslim. She never made it home either.
olddogthoughts 