KABUL (SW) – Mohammad Yusuf Rashid, executive director of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, was killed in an assassination attempt in Kabul on Wednesday.
Abdul Baqi Rashid, his brother, has confirmed that he was killed. A spokesman for the Kabul Police Command, Ferdows Faramarz said that at around 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, the slain head of the FEFA and his driver were assassinated in the 7th district.
Abdul Baqi Rashid told Salam Watandar that his brother had no enmity with anyone. He said Yusuf Rashid was first brought to the Ibn-e-Seena hospital and later the Emergency hospital, but he had succumbed to the blood-wounds he had sustained.
Ahmad Davood Akbar, a local elder living in the neighborhood where Rashid lived, said the government failed in providing security to the slain head of FEFA. “There were two motorcyclists who attacked and unfortunately killed Yusuf Rashid,” he said.
Abdul Aziz Ebrahimi, a close associate of Rashid and a spokesman for the Independent Election Commission (IEC), expressed grim concerns over surge in such assassinations. “Unfortunately, every day begins with the assassination of key individuals,” Ebrahimi said.
The Presidential Palace condemned the deadly attack on Yusuf Rashid.
Presidential spokesman Sediq Siddiqui wrote on Twitter that the Afghan government strongly condemned the terrorist attack on FEFA chief executive Yusuf Rashid. “Attacking civil, electoral and media activists is an attack on freedom and a democratic society in Afghanistan,” Seddiqi said. “The enemies of the Afghan people will not be able to take Afghanistan two decades back.”
No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
ENDS
