Radio journalist shot dead in Nangarhar

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): A private radio station report was shot dead by militants in the Batikot district of eastern Nangarhar province, bordering Pakistan’s tribal region of Khyber, officials said on Saturday.

Batikot district chief Haji Ghalib told Pajhwok Afghan News that Spinghar Radio Aqil Mohammad Waqar was attending a wedding party that militants stormed. He was shot to death on Friday night. Another person was wounded in the attack. 

Spinghar Radio Station is located on the Jalalabad-Torkham highway in Rodat district. Sher Bahadur, an official, said Waqar did not have personal enmity with anyone and the motive behind his murder remained unclear. 

A professional journalist, Waqar always raised issues of public importance, Sher Bahadur said, asking the government to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident and bring his killers to justice.   

Lal Pacha Azmoon, head of the journalists and writers association in the east, said threats to journalists had recently increased, affecting reporters’ performance. He called on the government to investigate the murder.  

Eight Afghan journalists lost their lives to security in 2014.

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