Hazara Genocide Archive

Nafsieh Balkhi, 23, and Mohammad Gholami, 30, who worked at a private clinic in Mazar-e-Sharif, were killed in the suburbs of Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday afternoon, April 3rd. Nafiseh was a midwife and Mohammad Gholami oversaw a medical store. "On Friday afternoon, Nafiseh and Mohammad Gholami were on their way from the Ali Chupan district medical center to the city center when a Taliban checkpoint stopped them," a relative of Nafiseh told The Independent on condition of anonymity. "When the Taliban found out that the two had no family ties, they arrested them." The Taliban arrested Nafisa and Muhammad for violating the group's laws banning travel for unmarried men and women together. According to this informed source, her contact with her family was interrupted from the moment Nafiseh was arrested, but efforts to find her continued until her body was handed over to her family at Mazar-e-Sharif Central Hospital on Saturday morning. The body of Nafiseh's colleague Mohammad Gholami was handed over to his family from Mazar-e-Sharif Central Hospital on Saturday morning. The Taliban asked the families of Nafiseh and Mohammad to pick up their bodies from the Omar Farooq area east of Mazar-e-Sharif.