KABUL, September 23, 2010
President Hamid Karzai has ordered a probe into detention of three Afghan journalists by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and asked for their release.
A statement from the Presidential Palace said the Ministry of Information and Culture was assigned to talk to ISAF for ensuring release of two Aljazeeral local reporters in the south and a freelance journalist in the north detained by the foreign troops recently.
Aljazeera reporter in Kandahar Muhammad Nader and another reporter in Ghazni Rahmatullah Nikzad were arrested from their homes during night raids by ISAF last week.
Rahmatullah Mujaddidi, a freelance journalist in Kapisa province in the north, was arrested by the National Directorate of Security and later handed over to ISAF.
All the three are apparently held for suspicions of propaganda for the Taliban, however their families and offices have rejected any such involvement.
The presidential statement said the President was committed to supporting free media in Afghanistan.