In late March of 2000, after the Union Front forces withdrew from most of the Gosfandi district in Sar-e-Pol Province, Taliban-affiliated militant forces regained control of the Ab Khor valley. They urged the displaced civilian people to go back to their villages. Upon the villagers' return, they arrested twenty-five men. Subsequently, the Taliban bound the detainees' hands and took them to the neighboring Jar-e-Rajab area in Khassar village, where they were put to death by a firing squad.