He and others say that Rafiqullah had no links with the Taliban. Indeed, he was angry with the group because he was not able to travel home freely due to their threats.

One of Rafiqullah’s close friends was with him shortly before the shooting and said he could not sense anything unusual about Rafiqullah’s behavior.

Students say that Rafiqullah was bothered by the fact that British men were training female Afghan officers at a neighboring compound.

“He had seen the Afghan girls during the training sessions with their British mentors,” says another student, also speaking anonymously. “He didn’t like the idea that they were doing daily jogging and military training with foreign mentors.”