Afghan teacher killed for preaching against suicide bombing

Uzbekistan News.Net
Wednesday 14th May, 2008 (IANS)

An Afghan teacher who preached against suicide bombings was killed by unknown armed men in the northern part of the country, officials said Wednesday.

The school teacher was killed by gunfire in Archi district of the northern province of Kunduz Tuesday night, said Juma Khan, the administrative chief of the district.
He said the teacher had recently condemned the wave of suicide bombings in the country and termed them as 'un-Islamic' during a speech at a gathering in the district.
Taliban militants have killed several Afghan clerics in the past for giving anti-Taliban speeches. Suicide bombing is a frequent Taliban and Al Qaeda tactic.
Meanwhile, Afghan intelligence agents arrested a foreign would-be suicide bomber and his Afghan associate and seized 200 kg of explosive packed in a vehicle in northern Balkh province, a government spokesman said.
Hamza, 20, who is from Tajikistan but was born in Pakistan and studied in an Islamic religious school in the Pakistani city of Karachi, was arrested Tuesday while he was trying to enter Mazar-e-Sharif city, the capital of Balkh province, Sayed Ansari, spokesman for the intelligence service, told reporters Tuesday night.
He said that his Afghan guide had also come from Pakistan and intended to carry out a terrorist attack in the province.
'The terrorists have confessed and said that they were tasked by a man called Saifullah, who is a member of the Al Qaeda network and now lives in North Waziristan of Pakistan,' Ansari said.

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