At a time when Indian liberals and journalists are hailing the Taliban for its ‘moderate’ outlook and for its public relations of holding a “press conference”, the Taliban continues to do unleash violence against journalists, intellectuals, non-Muslims.
In yet another attack on journalists working in Afghanistan, the Taliban fighters have shot and killed a relative of a journalist working with German outlet Deutsche Welle. The Islamists were conducting a house-to-house search for the DW journalist when this incident occurred.
As per the report, another relative of the journalist was seriously injured in the attack, but others were able to escape. The Taliban had raided the homes of at least three other DW journalists, the broadcaster said.
Meanwhile, DW director-general Peter Limbourg has condemned the killing, which he said showed the danger to media workers and their families in Afghanistan.
“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” he said.
Peter Limbourg said that it is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organized searches for journalists, both in Kabul and in the provinces. “We are running out of time”, he said.
Following the attacks against the journalists, the DW and other German media organisations have called on the German government to take swift action to help their Afghan staff.
Besides foreign journalists, the Taliban has carried out attacks on local journalists as well. Nematullah Hemat of the private television station Ghargasht TV is believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban, and Toofan Omar, the head of the private radio station Paktia Ghag Radio has been shot dead by Taliban fighters.
Attacks on journalists continue in Afghanistan
Ever since the Taliban took over Kabul from the Afghan forces, there has been increased attacks on journalists, independent intellectuals in the country. On Wednesday, the Taliban attacked and assaulted journalists in Jalalabad for covering the protests in favour of the Afghanistan flag.
A video had gone viral on social media platforms in which two journalists were seen crying after the Taliban brutally assaulted them. The video was shared by Hafizullah Maroof, journalist, BBC World Service. In another video that has been widely shared on social media, also reportedly from Jalalabad, a Taliban man was seen kicking and standing over a female journalist who is writhing in pain.
Another journalist is slapped and beaten multiple times by armed Taliban radicals. Social media users said that the Taliban punished the two for working with foreign media. Similarly, reports have emerged that Taliban fighters attacked CNN journalists on Wednesday.
Indian Journalists hail Taliban for their press freedom
Ironically, the attacks on journalists by the Taliban comes at a time when senior leaders of the Jihadist organisation are trying to project a ‘moderate’ image by its PR blitzkrieg. In fact, the propaganda of the Taliban has achieved limited success, with left-liberal journalists across the world, including from India, have fallen into their trap.
It is worth mentioning that the Indian “secular-liberal” had hailed the radical Islamic group for holding the press conference to address a few questions raised by the journalists working in Afghanistan.
On August 17, following the capture of Kabul from the Afghan government, the Islamist group Taliban had held a press conference. The “liberal-secular” establishment in India was so “impressed” by the conference that they used it to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Following the footsteps of toolkit-creators, a series of posts popped up on social media platform Twitter shaming PM Modi for not holding a press conference since he resumed office in 2014. Rather than questioning the Taliban over killing one of its colleagues Danish Siddiqui, the Indian liberals were taking a dig at the Indian Prime Minister for not holding a press conference in the last seven years.
