After the killing of three women media workers in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad have sent shockwaves across the world, the police said that the suspect, who is connected to the Taliban, has been arrested.
Provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said that Qari Basir, the main attacker, was arrested and that he was related to the Taliban, news agency Reuters reported.
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Since the intra-Afghan talks began in September in Qatar's Doha, violence has increased in the country, including an attack on Kabul University which killed dozens of students.
7 Journalists, 1 Media Worker Killed in 2020 in Afghanistan
A report indicates that four anchors, three reporters and a cameraman have lost their lives in terrorist incidents in different parts of the country in 2020. This number was similar to 2019 but the level of threats to journalists and media workers has been unprecedentedly high in recent months and continues unabated.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center, in a report published Saturday, says in 2020 Daesh was responsible for killing two anchors, the Taliban was responsible for killing one reporter and a cameraman, and unknown armed men were responsible for killing two anchors.
According to the report, the perpetrators of some of the attacks have not been identified so far.
Afghan President Orders Investigation Into Journalist’s Killing Bloomberg 12/22/2020 Eltaf Najafizada
(Bloomberg) Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has ordered authorities to investigate the shooting death of a prominent Afghan journalist the fifth reporter to be killed in less than two months as the government and the Taliban push ahead with peace talks to end the country’s 19 year conflict.
Ghani described the murder as an “attack on freedom of speech and a crime against humanity,” his office said in an emailed statement late Monday. U.S. Charge d’Affaires Ross Wilson tweeted from Kabul that the “targeted killing” of journalists and “attempts to silence Afghanistan’s courageous reporters must end.”