By: Rukhshana Media
The Taliban forces have prevented Rukhshana Media’s reporters from covering today’s explosions in west Kabul, threatening to beat and detain them.
Three explosions targeted two educational institution in Kabul, killing at least 30, mostly schoolboys. Our reporters went to cover the incident.
The Taliban violently seized one of our reporter’s smartphone outside Mohammad Ali Jinnah hospital, then deleted videos and photos he had taken from the explosion sites. He said a Taliban fighter wanted to break his phone but he resisted and stopped him from doing so.
The Taliban members threatened to beat and imprison the reporter if he continued covering the incident.
The Taliban forced another Rukhshana Media reporter, who was also assigned to cover the blasts, to leave the scene.
We cannot disclose the identity of our reporters for security reasons.
A third female journalist, working for another local media outlet, said the Taliban told her, she had no right to ask questions. She said the Taliban insulted her for her Asian facial features.
“Your face is like foreigners,” she said a Taliban fighter told her. “You are a foreign servant and you wear western clothes.”
Ali Reza Shahir, the fourth journalist, was briefly detained by the Taliban for covering the explosions, according to Afghanistan Journalists Center. He works for Rah-e-Farda television network, and the Taliban released him after seizing his memory card.
