New Delhi: whilst Tolo News, Afghanistan’s first independent news channel, confirmed the death of its reporter Ziar Yaad Khan in Kabul, the person tweeted saying the report is fake . Mr Khan said he was beaten by Taliban in Kabul’s New City and was hit at gunpoint “I was beaten by the Taliban in Kabul’s New City while reporting. Cameras, technical equipment and my personal mobile have also been hijacked. Some people have spread the news of my death which is fake .The The Taliban got out of an armored Land Cruiser and hit me at gunpoint,” tweeted Mr Khan.
In July, Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, employed with press agency Reuters, was killed while reporting in Afghanistan’s Kandahar. Mr Siddiqui was riding along side the Afghan Special Forces , and had been reporting on their operations against the Taliban within the region.
Reports say Danish Siddiqui was captured and executed and his body was mutilated In an interview to NDTV before Kabul fell to the Taliban, Muhammad Sohail Shaheen, spokesperson of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar, said Mr Siddiqui was killed in crossfire and his fault was to not coordinate with the Taliban
Asked whether journalists could simply approach the Taliban and be allowed to report from the bottom , the spokesperson claimed, “Journalists from round the world, if they need to return to our areas and file reports, they will come…They can open branches in our areas to ascertain the bottom reality with their own eyes.”
The Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 once they were thrown out by US-led forces. They notoriously enforced oppressive policies supported their version of the Islamic Sharia law; women were banned from education and work, they might not leave home without a blood brother , men had to grow beards and canopy their heads too. All entertainment was banned and any violation of their brutal restrictions would provoke whipping or beatings.
