A Life Sought in Safety, Lost in the Night: A Norwegian Manhunt After Afghan Refugee is Killed

BERGEN, Norway — The quiet, residential street in the Arena district of Bergen is a world away from the dust and danger of Afghanistan. For one family, it was meant to be a sanctuary. Late Sunday night, that sanctuary was shattered by gunfire, leaving a young Afghan man dead on the pavement outside his home and launching a frantic manhunt across the rain-slicked Norwegian city.

The victim, a man in his late twenties who had come to Norway with his wife after the Taliban takeover in 2021, was more than a statistic. He was a former member of Afghanistan’s elite Unit 222, a force once at the sharpest edge of his country’s conflict. Having traded his uniform for the hope of a peaceful life, he found instead a violent and bewildering end on his own doorstep.

“I wouldn’t wish anyone to see what I saw,” said a shaken Chris André Isager, the neighbor who rushed outside after hearing shouts and commotion. He found the man lying mortally wounded. “I sat with him and tried to help him, but there was no chance. I realized how it was going to end.” Isager believes he saw the shadowy figure of the attacker fleeing into the night, a glimpse now central to the police investigation.

Police were on the scene 18 minutes after the 10:26 p.m. call, but the assailant was already gone. The victim died while being transported to Haukeland University Hospital. His wife, who sustained minor injuries in the attack, was also treated at the hospital, now a widow in a foreign land.

“This is absolutely dreadful. It certainly makes you want to move away from here,” said neighbor Gøran Nordgård, echoing the despair that has rippled through the tight-knit community. “We haven’t slept.” Another neighbor, Berekt Yeibyo, recalled a “pleasant man” he often greeted, now gone.

In the immediate aftermath, Bergen was a city under a silent alarm. Police set up checkpoints along major routes like the E39 near Åsane, stopping buses and cars. Drones buzzed over wooded areas, and police dogs scoured the grounds as the search operation expanded. By Monday, the visible net had been drawn back, but the hunt had turned inwards—to forensics, witness interviews, and the digital trail.

At a press conference, Police Attorney Inger-Lise Høyland delivered a stark update: “We do not know the motive for the killing or who we are looking for.” Yet, the calculated nature of the attack left little doubt. “Based on the manner in which it happened… we do not believe he was a random victim.”

This chilling detail amplifies a growing fear within Afghan exile communities across Europe. Since the fall of Kabul, former government and security personnel who relocated have lived with an undercurrent of anxiety, concerned about targeted threats and the security of their personal data abroad. While authorities stress there is no evidence yet linking any group to this killing, the victim’s background casts a long shadow over the investigation.

For now, the police are piecing together the final hours. They have asked anyone in the Åsheimsdalen area between 8:30 p.m. and midnight to come forward. They are seeking dashcam footage from drivers in Arna. The victim’s autopsy is scheduled, a clinical step in answering violent questions.

But in a quiet Bergen neighborhood, the questions are more human. They are about safety promised and safety broken, about a life begun anew in the serene Norwegian landscape, ended by a violence that followed him across continents. As the official investigation continues with no suspects and no arrests, a community—and a nation—is left to wonder who is still out there, and why a refugee who sought nothing but peace met such a brutal and specific end.

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