Australian Sayed Habib Captured and Murdered By Taliban in Afghanistan For Coming From An 'Infidel Country'

An Australian man has been tortured and killed by Taliban militants in Afghanistan. According to his family, the 56-year-old Sayed Habib, who lived in Sydney, was taken by Taliban on Sept. 20 while he was on his way from Jaghori to Ghazni province.

Reports said negotiations between the Taliban and the Hazara elders had sparked hopes that Habib will be released. However, locals recovered his body on Sept. 23 with gunshot wounds on his neck and chest. The people who found his body said they could see signs that Habib was tortured before he was murdered.

Habib had been visiting his relatives in the Hazara community where the Taliban regularly disturb the population. According to the Guardian, several cases of religious and ethnic minorities being murdered happened in the place where Habib was captured.

Habib's family said he had been in Afghanistan since May but he was waiting for a chance to travel safely from Kabul to Jaghori to check on his son's wife and children. His son is currently in Indonesia, where he is seeking to gain asylum in Australia.

Habib's daughter Kubra Mosawi who lives in Berala, Sydney, said the family has not received any assistance from the Australian government since her father died. She said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been made aware of Habib's death. Mosawi told the Guardian her family was in shock. She said Habib was an Australian citizen, yet the government has done nothing about his situation.

Mosawi called on the government to find out how the Taliban had known her father was going back to Kabul. She said it was obvious the militants had known him since witnesses claimed they heard the Taliban say "Sayed Habib, get up" when they boarded the minibus.

Habib has since been buried in Jaghori. His wife and youngest son living in Melbourne had travelled to Afghanistan to attend the funeral.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has previously warned Australians not to go to Afghanistan because of the "extremely dangerous security situation" and the high possibility of getting caught in a terrorist attack. The government agency said it considers foreigners to be at risk of an attack in Afghanistan. The Australian embassy's security has been strengthened following the terrorist attack in a Kabul restaurant last January.

A spokesperson for the department has confirmed that the embassy in Kabul is looking into reports of an Australian-Afghan dual national's death in Afghanistan. Mohammed Ali Ahmadi, Ghazni provinde deputy governor told ABC that Habib was killed because he came from Australia, a country the Taliban sees as an "infidel country." He said Habib was not a criminal and his only crime in the eyes of the terrorists was that he came from Australia. When the Taliban captured him, Habib had mentioned that he came from Australia and travelled to Afghanistan to see his family.