Bismillah Adel Aimaq, the Editor-in-Chief of Sada-e-Ghor Radio in Firuzkoh, was shot dead by unknown armed men in the Friday evening.
Mr. Aimaq’s assassination revealed that once again the enemies of the Afghan people are purposefully targeting the elites of Afghan media community, the government is witnessing it all, and is incapable to provide security to citizens in specific journalists.
Mr. Aimaq had recently stated on his Facebook page about the possibilities of attack over him, wrote in a complaint that no one cares about it seriously, and some people even considered it for fame and personal conspiracy.
Nai Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan had recently received a letter from Mr. Aimaq’s address. The letter stated that unknown armed individuals had attacked over his house with grenade. Also, he suffered another unsuccessful armed attack in those days.
Nai by issuing an official letter asked the relevant security entities including the National Directorate of Security and Ministry of Interior Affairs to follow up the issue and ensure Mr. Aimaq’s safety. Unfortunately no action was taken in this regard, and he was assassinated. so now the relevant entities must be accountable.
We once again urge the international community to do something in consideration to the presence of their forces in Afghanistan in order to share threatening information, as well as to investigate the security threats that journalists struggle with.
Moreover, we call on the Afghan government to take appropriate and precautionary measures to ensure the journalists’ safety in order not to witness more and more harms to the media community in the country.
It is worth reminding that seven journalists have been targeted in the last two months along with Mr. Aimaq, there is no accurate information about their pursuit so far, and the judiciary system in the country has not reported any case in this regard yet.