Zakia Zaki’s body was discovered yesterday, the owner of a radio which fundamentalists wanted closed. The Minister for the State condemns the murder: “it’s an act of terrorism”, investigations underway to find those responsible. This is the second killing of a woman in a week.

Kabul (AsiaNews/Agencies) –  A woman Afghan journalist, the owner of a radio station, shot to death north of the capital Kabul.  Less than a week ago a female television present was also murdered.   Zakia Zaki, 35, married, was executed on the night of May 5th in her home.  Her six children, present at the time, were unharmed.  So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abdul Jabbar Taqwa, Parvan province governor, says that three men armed with handguns raided the woman’s home shooting her in the head and chest her as she slept in her bed.

The independent association of Afghan journalists says that Zaki, “independent and courageous”, was recently the subject of death threats and that some local leaders wanted to close her radio station down.

The Minister for the State condemned the assassination as a “terrorist attack” and has promised a full investigation into the episode to find those responsible.

Following the Taliban’s ousting in 2001, independent media and private radio and television stations have blossomed in Afghanistan. Radio Peace, Zaki’s station, was opened thanks to US funding.  Many of these channels transmit entertainment programmes, sometimes criticised for their content deemed too modern for the profoundly conservative nation.

 

• Afghanistan
• Taliban
• journalist
• assassination
• Kabul
• Radio
• Television