Three female Afghan media workers shot dead during wave of extremist attacks on journalists

Ben Farmer
·2 min read
Afghan security officials check people at a check point on the outskirts of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, ahead of the first anniversary of the agreement between the United States and the Taliban, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 26 February 2021 (issued 28 February 2021)
Afghan security officials check people at a check point on the outskirts of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, ahead of the first anniversary of the agreement between the United States and the Taliban, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 26 February 2021 (issued 28 February 2021)

Three female media workers were shot dead in eastern Afghanistan in the latest in a wave of assassinations against journalists and civil society.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire in two separate attacks in the city of Jalalabad as the women made their way home.

The dead all worked in the dubbing department of the local Enikaas TV network which in December saw a news anchor and talk show host called Malala Maiwand killed.

The latest attack killed a worker called Mursal Waheedi and two other employees.

"They are all dead. They were going home from office on foot when they were shot," Zalmai Latifi, the director at Enikass TV, told AFP.

Afghanistan's journalist safety committee called the attack a war crime. The country is one of the deadliest to be a journalist and the Committee to Protect Journalists says 13 were killed in 2018 and another five last year.

A wave of unclaimed assassinations killing civil servants, members of the media, activists and officials has caused panic among the country's young, educated elite in recent months.

The government and diplomats say the Taliban are thought to be behind many, in an attempt to make the government look weak and also to eliminate liberal opponents ahead of any negotiations. The Taliban deny involvement.

Yet the districts around Jalalabad have also been a centre for violence by the country's branch of the Islamic State group and its militants said they had killed Ms Maiwand and her driver on December 10.

The killings have left many journalists and civil servants afraid to leave their homes and many of the country's most educated are instead trying to leave and get asylum abroad.

Shaharzad Akbar, head of Afghanistan's independent human rights commission, said the attack was horrific.

She said: “The Afghan media community has suffered too much. Afghan women have been targeted and killed too often. Afghanistan has bled for too long. This must stop. Stop killing civilians and destroying Afghanistan's future.”

The wave of assassinations intensified after the Afghan government was supposed to sit down for tentative negotiations with Taliban envoys in Doha. The talks have so far achieved little, with the two sides unable to agree on even an agenda yet.