Jalalabad (Afghanistan) (AFP)
Three workers at a television station were shot and killed by gunmen on Tuesday in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, less than three months after the similar assassination of one of its presenters, reported announced their colleagues.
"This afternoon, three of our colleagues, young women between the ages of 17 and 20, were shot and killed by gunmen in the city of Jalalabad," Zalmai Latifi, director of the AFP, told AFP. Enekaas TV channel.
Police said an assailant, belonging to the Taliban, was arrested.
Kayhan Safi, head of the dubbing department at Enekaas TV, where the three victims worked, confirmed the attack.
He said the three young women, named Shahnaz, Sadia and Mursal, were killed as they left their office to walk home.
"They worked with us for more than two years (...) We are all in shock here", he reacted.
In early December, a television presenter and activist working for Enekaas TV, Malalai Maiwand, was shot dead with her driver in Jalalabad on her way to her office.
"We arrested (an assailant) while he was trying to escape driving a rickshaw. His name is Qari Basir and he confessed to leading the attack. He is a member of the Taliban," Juma Gul said. Hemat, the police chief of Nangarhar, province where the incident took place.
The attack has not yet been claimed, however.
Zahir Adel, spokesperson for Nangarhar hospital, confirmed that the bodies of the three employees were brought to his facility, along with two other women who were injured.
Targeted killings of journalists, judges, doctors, political and religious figures, and human rights defenders have become increasingly frequent in recent months in Afghanistan.
Victims are often killed by bullets or in the explosion of bombs fixed on their vehicles, at peak times on the roads of large cities.
The Taliban deny any responsibility for the targeted attacks and the jihadist organization Islamic State has claimed most of them.
But the Afghan government and the United States continue to blame them.
© 2021 AFP