Journalist among 3 gunned down in eastern Afghanistan

By S. K. Khan

ISLAMABAD (AA) – An Afghan journalist was among three people shot dead by unknown gunmen in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday night, according to a local rights group.

Said Marof Saadat, a journalist who also worked as a spokesman in the previous Afghan government, was targeted along with two more people in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province that borders Pakistan, the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee said.

Saadat was an experienced journalist who worked with a number of local and international media outlets for over a decade, before serving as a spokesman for the provincial rural development department.

The two others killed in the incident were members of the Taliban, according to the local Salam Afghanistan radio.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Nangarhar has recently seen a string of such incidents, some of which were claimed by the Daesh/ISIS terror group.

Saadat is the third journalist killed in Afghanistan in a little over a month since the Taliban seized power.

The previous two were among the casualties in the massive Kabul airport suicide blasts in August.

According to a journalists’ union, up to 70% of media outlets in Afghanistan have shut down since the Taliban came to power, with around 67% of the country’s journalists losing their jobs.