Interpreter on Dutch evacuation list murdered in Kabul: report

An Afghan interpreter who worked with the Netherlands on an international mission and was on a Dutch evacuation list was killed in Kabul on Wednesday. The man's family told NOS about the murder, and sources within the Dutch government confirmed it, according to the broadcaster.

According to the 36-year-old interpreter's family, a Taliban representative knocked on the door of the man's parental home on Wednesday. "They asked for him, and when he confirmed who he was, they suddenly started firing an AK-47 at him. We lost him," a family member said to NOS.

The interpreter had been sleeping in different places every night in recent weeks, but that was becoming more and more difficult, his brother said. "Yesterday, he was at our parents' home," said the brother from his home in India. "Friends and family refused to give him shelter any longer because their lives would also be in danger if the Taliban knew he was staying with them."

According to NOS, the interpreter's father was also shot at but survived. His parents are terrified and hope to be evacuated by the Netherlands. They're also on the Dutch evacuation list, the family said.

Caretaker Minister Ben Knapen of Foreign Affairs told NOS that the Netherlands has not yet received confirmation of the murder. "But if it is true, it is obviously a tragedy," he said. According to Knapen, it is impossible to better protect people on the evacuation list in Afghanistan. "We have no embassy there, no people on the ground. We are fairly powerless in that regard."