3 women TV anchors shot dead in eastern Afghanistan

Kabul, Mar 2 (efe-epa).- Unidentified gunmen shot dead three women anchors of a private Afghan television network in the eastern city of Jalalabad Tuesday, government and TV channel officials said.

Two more women were wounded after the assailants opened fire at the three journalists in two separate incidents in the capital of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, 130 km (about 80 miles) from Kabul, the officials said.

The deceased women worked with a private Enikass Radio Television network that runs new and entertainment programs and is available in eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, and Kunar.

The TV network said, in a statement, that the three anchors were attacked around 4.30 pm when they were going home from work.

The statement said Sadia and Shahnaz were shot dead in Police District-1 of Jalalabad while Mursal Habibi fired at in Police District-1 of the city.

Video footage showed a pool of blood on a busy street where the two women were shot dead.

Nangarhar health department spokesperson Gulzada Sangar told EFE that they had received three bodies and two injured women in the hospital.

“The three women are workers of the Enikass television and the two injured women were those who were in the city for their daily work,” Sangar said.

Nangarhar police spokesperson Fareed Khan said two shooting incidents took place in the city, but he did not give more details.

“Our investigation teams are in the area and we will provide details once they back report to us,” he said.

It is the second attack on female journalists of the TV network in the past three months.

Malala Maiwand, an anchor with the channel, was shot dead with her driver in December by unidentified gunmen.

President Ashraf Ghani, in a statement, blamed the Taliban for the “unforgivable crime” of killing “our innocent citizens, especially on women.”

“The Taliban by launching such attacks, terror and horror cannot silence the straight voice for the defense of republic and the achievement of the past two decades,” he said.

The attacks on Tuesday are the latest in a series of target killings in the country that have continued unabated in the past more than a year and gained momentum with the start of intra-Afghan talks in Doha.

Victims of such attacks have mostly been journalists, civil society activists, intellectuals, and religious leaders.

The Afghan government blames the Taliban for such attacks.

The militant group has denied it was involved in any civilian killings. EFE-EPA

bks/ssk