The Afghan community in Iran awoke to shocking news that shook the foundations of the refugee military and political leadership, after the announcement of the assassination of General Ikramuddin Sari, head of the political committee of the “National Resistance Front” and former police chief of Takhar province, in a treacherous armed attack that targeted his home in the Iranian city of Mashhad.
Details of “The Night of Treachery”
The Afghan National Resistance Front reported that an armed group stormed General Sari’s house late at night and opened fire directly and heavily, killing him and one of his companions instantly, while another companion was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
General Sari, who was a security pillar in the previous Afghan government, had sought refuge in Iran after the fall of Kabul in August 2021, living there in a complex security situation, which included his detention and interrogation by local authorities earlier this year, before his journey ended with this bloody operation.
The Resistance Front: “The crime is heinous and the hand of terrorism is crossing borders.”
In an official statement issued from Tehran on Wednesday, the head of the Front’s political committee, Ali Meysam Nazari, mourned the late general, describing the assassination as a “heinous crime.”
Nazari expressed his regret over the death of Sari, who had defended the Afghan people for years, considering his passing a “great loss” for the country under the current circumstances.
The Front explicitly pointed the finger at the Taliban movement, asserting that the incident proves that the movement “targets everyone who stands against injustice, not only inside Afghanistan, but also outside its borders.”
The statement considered Sari’s assassination a symbol of the Taliban’s continued policies of violence to spread instability in the region, stressing that “the only way to salvation is resistance.”
Panic among military refugees
The assassination of Sari, which followed the killing of Commander Mohammad Marouf (one of Ismail Khan’s most prominent commanders) in Mashhad a short time earlier, has sparked panic and fear among thousands of former officers and soldiers residing in Iran and Pakistan.
The refugees’ concerns can be summarized in three main dimensions:
Security breach: The ability of assassination cells to reach deep into Iranian cities and target figures of the stature of “Sari”.
The precarious legal situation: the lack of official protection for former military personnel, and the risk of forced deportation for many of them, makes them “easy prey”.
Cross-border score-settling: A growing sense that the Taliban’s pursuit will not stop at the borders, and that exile is no longer a safe haven for armed or political opposition.
This crime presents the Iranian authorities with a major security and diplomatic challenge, given the increasing pace of “silent assassinations” on its territory, while the Afghan opposition abroad awaits an uncertain fate, amid calls to internationalize the issue of protecting former military personnel.
