Taliban attack on Afghan TV employees widely condemned

The January 20 suicide attack on a minibus in Kabul transporting journalists affiliated with Tolo TV, Afghanistan’s 24-hour news channel, was an atrocity created to undermine Afghanistan’s still-fragile media freedom.

A Taliban group claimed responsibility for the attack-but another Taliban group has disavowed that group and said they wouldn’t attack students.

“The enemy of peace and Afghan people have martyred my colleagues”, Fawad Aman, a well-known TOLO TV anchor, wrote on his Facebook page.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Sediq Seddiqi said the attack remained under investigation, Voice of America reported Thursday.

The Taliban took credit for Wednesday’s suicide bombing of a news agency in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The Taliban also objected to what it called Tolo’s programming of “obscenity, irreligiousness, foreign culture and nudity”, an apparent reference to musical programs, talent contests and showing women on television.

A Tolo TV reporter told the BBC’s Kawoon Khamoosh he was fortunate to be alive after almost burning to death.

Since the beginning of 2016, Kabul has been hit by at least at least six bomb attacks – in the most recent on Sunday a rocket landed near the Italian embassy, wounding two security guards.

Afghanistan’s parliament building and the Russian Embassy are on the road where the blast occurred.

The European Union’s mission in Afghanistan, which along with the USA mission is a strong advocate of media freedom in Afghanistan, called it a “horrific crime and an indefensible attack on a civilian target and a clear violation of global law”. The Taliban has threatened media organisations in the past.

Yet it is hardly the only group responsible for recent violence in Afghanistan.

If by “impartial media outlets” the Taliban mean outlets which are not critical of attacks on civilians-such as those riding the bus home from work-there aren’t many around.

Vice President Biden and President Ashraf Ghani condemned the Charsada terror attack and conveyed their grief over the loss of precious lives.