Taliban militants who have been looking for a journalist for the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) in Afghanistan have shot one member of his family and seriously injured another, DW said.
The Taliban have searched several homes in an attempt to find a journalist already working in Germany.
Other relatives have been able to escape from the persecutors and are currently hiding.
DW Director-General Peter Limburg has strongly condemned and called on the German government to take action.
“The Taliban’s killing of a close relative of our editor yesterday is incomprehensibly tragic and a sign of the acute danger facing our workers and their families in Afghanistan,” Limburg said.
“It is obvious that the Taliban are already carrying out an organized search for journalists in both Kabul and the provinces. We are running out of time.”
The Taliban have searched the homes of at least three DW journalists.
Germany’s major media, including DW, have addressed an open letter to the German government urging them to launch an emergency visa program for Afghan media workers.
The German Journalists’ Association (DJV) also calls on the German government to take decisive action, given that the Taliban have persecuted freelance correspondents in the German media.
“Germany must not stand idly by when our colleagues are persecuted and even killed,” said DJV chairman Frank Iberall.
At the moment, rescuing these journalists and providing them with shelter in Germany is crucial, he added.
Reporters Without Borders has called for an informal special session of the UN Security Council to address the plight of journalists in Afghanistan.
It has already been reported that, leaving Afghanistan with US and other foreign forces, the Taliban began an offensive this month, taking control of almost the entire country and occupying the capital, Kabul, on Sunday. Afghan President Ashraf Gani left the country on Sunday.
The Taliban province alone has not come under the control of the Taliban, where Taliban opponents are trying to establish a center of resistance to the radical Islamist regime.
–
