By: Rukhshana Media
At least two journalists have disappeared, three were briefly detained, and one was badly beaten by the Taliban in Afghanistan in the past five days, a source working with an Afghan media support organization said.
Mirza Hassani, the owner of Radio Aftab, disappeared recently, and Ali Akbar Khairkhawa, a reporter for Subh-e-Kabul, went missing on Tuesday when he was on his way to conduct an interview.
The source, who spoke on the condition we don’t publish his and organization’s name, said the Taliban also detained three local journalists in the northern province of Faryab on Friday, May 27. All three were released on bail after spending several hours in detention. Basira Mutasim, a female journalist, was among the three detained in Faryab, another source said.
The sixth journalist, Qudratullah Kakar, a former host at Ariana News, was picked up from his house, then severely beaten by the Taliban over a Facebook post, according to the source who works with the media support organization. He said Kakar was in critical condition in a hospital.
Meanwhile, NAI, another Media support organization, said in a statement that unknown individuals broke into the office of Afghan News Agency and stole its equipment including a camera stand, a wifi modem and five laptop computers last night in Kabul.
NAI called on the Taliban to investigate the cases of violence against journalists and the burglary of the Afghan News Agency.
The Taliban haven’t said anything about any of the six cases of violence against journalists reported in the past few days. But they have imposed severe restrictions on the media, and detained, beaten, tortured and imprisoned dozens of journalists since they took power in August.
