Two female Afghan Supreme Court judges were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Kabul on Sunday, AFP reported. The shooting was the most recent in the city’s string of high-profile killings.
A spokesperson for the Supreme Court said that as they were heading to their office in a court car, the judges were targeted. They injured their driver in the attack.
The judges have not been identified yet. Their killings, according to Reuters, are being investigated by security forces. The Taliban, meanwhile, denied any role in the incident.
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The killings came in the midst of peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Qatar. Over the last few months, the government has consistently accused the Taliban of involvement in killings, according to AP. On the other side, the Taliban alleged that the killings were staged by the government to hamper the peace process.
According to Reuters, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has also blamed the Taliban for carrying out attacks on civilians. He said that the response to the conflict in Afghanistan was not “terror, horror and crime,” adding that “a permanent ceasefire” should be agreed by the Taliban.
The negotiations between the two sides were arranged by the United States. The Pentagon said on Friday that the US troop count in Afghanistan had lowered to 2,500, the lowest since 2001.
