ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and representatives of foreign media organizations Tuesday paid homage to Afghan journalists, who were killed in two suicide bombings in capital Kabul and firing in Kandahar on Monday.
Daesh claimed the deadly target attack on media persons who rushed to the site of an earlier bomb attack. The twin attacks claimed 25 lives, including 9 journalist, cameramen and photographers. Hours after the massacre in Kabul, unidentified gunmen shot dead BBC Pashto service correspondent in Khost province.
The National Press Club Islamabad and Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists organized the candlelight vigil to show solidarity with the Afghan journalists, who are under attack by the enemy of freedom of expression. Office-bearers of the Pakhtun Journalists Association also joined the grieved journalists.
Bureau chief of the AFP news agency in Pakistan was among the dozens of foreign journalists, who joined Pakistani media persons to attend the event. Several journalists broke down as they remembered the brutally murdered journalists in Afghanistan.
Later the journalists held a condolence meeting in the National Press Club where foreign and local journalists paid homage to the deceased.
President RIUJ Mubarak Zeb said that Pakistani journalists share the pain of Afghan journalists at this critical time. He condemned the attacks on Afghan media persons and said the enemy of the freedom of the press cannot stop journalists from their duties.
The AFP bureau chief thanked Pakistani journalists for organizing the event to show sympathy with their Afghan brethren.
Other Pakistani journalists said Pakistan will support Afghan counterparts as both are under same pressure while performing professional duties.
Saddest day for Afghan journalists
April 30 was a saddest day for Afghan journalists and media workers as they lost 10 colleagues in a single day in the twin bombings in Kabul and a firing incident in eastern Khost province.
The Daesh-claimed terrorist attacks have once again highlighted the danger Afghan media workers are currently facing in the war-torn country.
As media workers were mourning deaths of colleagues in Kabul on Monday, unidentified gunmen shot dead a BBC Pashto service correspondent Ahmad Shah in the eastern province of Khost.
No group claimed responsibility for the killing of Ahmad Shah, but several journalist friends of Ahmad Shah said on social media that he had filed some reports about a local group known as “campaign” after the group was accused of killing some civilians at Nadir Shahkot area of Kandahar. He was also critical at the silence of the Khost authorities at the activities of the campaign group. The authorities say they are investigating motives behind the murder.
On 25 unidentified gunmen murdered Abdul Manan Arghand, a local correspondent for Kabul News TV, in southern Kandahar.
Journalists were massacred just days ahead of the UN’s World Press Freedom Day to be observed on May 3 (Thursday) across the world.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Kabul condemned the attack in the heavily populated by civilians and a statement said, “the attack which appears to have deliberately targeted journalists is a direct assault on freedom of expression.”
Media groups have showed concern at the failure of the government and its security agencies to ensure security of the journalists and media workers.
Rahimullah Samandar, head (President) of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA), said the Afghan security agencies had failed to stop the bomber who reached the area the gathering in a highly secured area.
He told the BBC Pashto service that the bombing was a target attack on the media persons and that the deaths of reporters and photojournalists were painful for the media. He recalled that over 20 media workers were killed and 70 others were injured in 2017.
“No one can browbeat us and the journalists gathered at the attacks site after the blats to send a strong message to the enemy of the freedom of expression,” he said, adding that the media groups will soon chalk out a policy to deal with the threats to the media.
Published in Daily Times, May 2nd 2018.
