Kabul: March11, 2014
Gunmen have shot dead Swedish Radio's South Asia correspondent, Nils Horner in the high-security zone of Wazir Akbar Khan diplomatic district in Kabul on Tuesday.
A Local official said the journalist was shot injured in the back of his head in an unusual attack using a pistol with a silencer and died on his way to hospital.
Kabul Police spokesperson, Hashmatullah Stankzai said that the man, who had been in the country only from two days ago, had been shot injured around 11:15am, local time.
He was travelling from his hotel to the ruins of a Lebanese restaurant bombed by the Taliban in January. He had been planning to meet a survivor there for a report. Stankzai added.
Without giving details, Satnkzai said the victim’s Afghan translator and driver had been detained by police, for further investigation.
According to the Sveriges Radio, Nils 51 had reported from Afghanistan in 2001 when the Taliban were forced from power, during the USA's entry into Baghdad in 2003, from Thailand following the Tsunami in 2004, and from Japan after the tsunami and ensuing Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011.
Swedish Radio's Director-General Cilla Benkö says this is one of the worst days in the corporation's history.
"Nils was one of our absolute best and most experienced correspondents and what has happened to him today is terrible. We are now trying to get as many details as we can", she said in a statement.
"We know there are high-risk areas", she said, "Kabul isn't an area Swedish Radio should not cover."
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt passed on his sympathies at a press conference: "I want to express my deepest condolences to Nils Horner's relatives", he said, "we know Nils Horner as a knowledgeable, enthusiastic and experienced journalist. Many Swedes have listened to his voice, a voice which has now been silenced."
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said told to AP, the group was not immediately claiming responsibility for the shooting but added that he would speak to insurgent groups on the ground.
The incident came a day after a local journalist, Mukhtar Wafayee severally beaten by two unknown gunmen, in Northern Mazar-e-Sharif down town.
Local journalist, Noor Agha Sharifi, said to AFJC that, the two unknown individual have criticized and insulted Wafayee for what they called publishing propaganda, and then severally beaten him.
Afghanistan Journalists Center condemn the killing of British-Swedish journalist and beaten of the local journalist and expresses serious concerns about increase of violence against journalists in a critical time that the country is preparing for the presidential and local council elections.
The AFJC request the Afghan government to ensure the freedom of media activities by ensuring the security and supporting the reporters’ rights by holding the violators accountable for their acts.