Afghan reporter killed in coordinated Taliban attacks on southern town

By Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders is saddened to learn that Ahamad Omid Khapolok, a reporter for the BBC and the Afghan news agency Pajhwok, was killed today during Taliban attacks on several buildings in Tarin Kot, the capital of the southern province of Oruzgan. Khapolok was in one of the targeted buildings, the provincial headquarters of the national radio and TV station.
“We offer our condolences to Khapolok’s family and friends,” Reporters Without Borders said. “A talented young journalist, he had the courage to work as a reporter in the south of the country, a Taliban bastion. This crime must not go unpunished. We demand the truth about the circumstances of his death. Enemies of media freedom, the Taliban are murdering a still growing number of journalists and ordinary citizens.”
Suicide bombers and gunmen began a series of coordinated attacks on several Tarin Kot buildings including the radio and TV station, the governor’s house and police headquarters at around 12:15 pm. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi confirmed that they were carried out by his organization but denied that the Taliban killed Khapolok.
Khapolok’s brother told the Pajhwok news agency that his brother sent him an SMS message after being badly injured in which he asked him to pray for him. He died before emergency services arrived. At least 17 people were killed in the attacks.
Khapolok is the third Pajhwok journalist to be killed. Abdul Samad Rohani was killed in Helmand in June 2008 and Janullah Hashimzada was killed in northern Pakistan in August 2009.

Comments

The conflict forced Afghan children to work

By Hanan Habibzai More then three decades of war has forced millions of children in Afghanistan to feed their families. The United Nation figures show that 8.5 million children are the main responsible members of the families working in the streets to earn money and brining food to the rest of households. An Afghan child struggling to earn money for food The Poverty, poor security and an influx of refugees returning to Afghanistan from neighbouring countries are the main factors that compel families to force their children to work. The Poor security:an Afghan child walking to cross the troops A United Nation survey released last year ,showed that children were employed in a range of heavy jobs from washing cars in the street to working in shops and restaurants as well as in mechanical factories and garages. Afghan employment law specify that children can work from the age of 15 but their working hours must not exceed 35 hours a week. Afghanist...

Afghanistan: “It’s Just Damage Limitation Now”

By Mark Thompson Source: time.com Briton Ben Anderson is a documentary filmmaker (the BBC, HBO, the Discovery Channel), but he turns to the written word in No Worse Enemy : The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan . The book offers a gritty – and grim — assessment of the war. Anderson embedded with U.S. and British troops for months in the southern part of the country from 2007 to 2011. He details corruption, incompetence, fear — by both allied troops and Afghan civilians — and a Groundhog Day kind of existence., where a battle fought for days has to be fought again, later. Most distressingly, he argues that the American and British publics are getting a misleading picture of progress on the ground. Battleland conducted this email chat with Anderson last weekend. Why did you write No Worse Enemy: The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan? I’d been travelling to Helmand for five years, first in 2007 with the Brits, t...

True Afghan Review: Attacks on Afghan academic units' part of an info war

Attacks on Afghan academic units' part of an info war By Hanan Habibzai 03/11/2020 The Doha Agreement, signed between the Taliban and the United States, has paved the way for peace talks between the government and the Taliban. But ongoing situation on the ground shows that significant efforts on the way to discredit these talks. Afghan government says for the Taliban Escalating violence means showing up presence and claim more territory in order to appear more powerful at the negotiations table in Qatar. The situation has rather more devastated Afghans when the Kabul University been attacked by armed men on Monday killing 22 students and injuring many more. This perhaps removed the last shred of faith they may have had in the government ability in providing a safe environment. But the Taliban has denied responsibility for the recent attacks on academic institutions, a spokesman said, adding that the attacks were not their work, but government forces insisted the ambush we...

Hanan Habibzai

Search This Blog