25 September 2019
Kandahar: Afghan journalist Abdulhamid Hotaki from Hiwad radio station succumbs to wounds sustained in an explosion near the president Ashraf Ghani’s election campaign in Southern Kandahar city, Hiwad radio station said today.
The explosion, which was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) placed near President Ashraf Ghani’s election campaign office, happened at approximately 7pm on Tuesday, head of Hewad Radio and Television Network, Sediqullah Khaliq told AFJC
“Abdulhamid Hotaki was on his way from office to home in Kandahar city when the explosion happened, Mr. Kaliq added.
Hotaki, a native of neighboring Oruzgan province was working as reporter and presenter with the Hiwad radio station since 2014.
Meanwhile, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi blamed the attack on the Taliban, which bombed a President Ghani campaign rally last week in the central city of Charikar, killing 26.
Four civilian, including a journalist were killed and six other injured in the explosion he said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
AFJC is deeply troubled by death of Abdulhamid and calls of the Afghan authorities to take urgent action to bring his killers to justice. We urge Afghan authorities to take substantive action towards protecting all journalists and media workers in the country and upholding the fundamental rights of free expression and press freedom.
Abdulhamid Hotaki is the seventh media workers to be killed in 2019 in Afghanistan. According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center(AFJC), Afghanistan was the deadliest country in the world to be a journalist in 2018, with 17 journalist and media workers killed in a series of bombings that began early in the year, nine of them in a single day.