Afghan radio journalist Besmillah Adel Aimaq was shot dead in a car ambush making him the fifth media worker to be killed in two months in Afghanistan.
This statement was originally published on afjc.af on 1 January 2021.
Afghan radio journalist Besmillah Adel Aimaq has been shot dead in a car ambush in the central province of Ghor, making him the fifth media worker to be killed in two months in Afghanistan.
Aimaq, editor-in-chief of Seday-e-Ghor (Voice of Ghor) radio, was shot and killed en route to Firoz Koh city, the capital of Ghor province, on Friday afternoon [1 January 2021], said the governor’s spokesman, Aref Aber.
No one immediately took responsibility for the death of Aimaq, the fifth journalist and media worker to have been killed in Afghanistan in the last two months, and the first in 2021.
Targeted killings of prominent figures, including journalists, have become more common in recent months as violence surges in Afghanistan despite ongoing peace talks with the Taliban.
Since November, Radio Azadi reporter Elyas Da’ee, Enikas TV presenter Malala Maywand and her driver Tahir khan, and freelance reporter Rahmatullah Nikzad, all have been killed in different incidents in Afghanistan.
“We express our anger and condemnation at the killing of Adel Aimaq, the latest victim in this ongoing cycle of intimidation, violence, and murder against journalists in Afghanistan,” said AFJC executive director Ahmad Quraishi. “We demand swift action from Afghan authorities to bring those responsible for this crime to justice.”
