By KUNA,
Kabul : An Afghan journalist, who was shot dead by unidentified miscreants in the volatile southern Afghanistan on Sunday, was laid to rest on Monday. Abdul Samad Rohani, a young Afghan journalist, was working for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Pashto service in the country’s lawless Helmand province. Rohani was abducted on Saturday while on way to Lashkargah, capital of Helmand. His body was found with three shots in the neck on the outskirts of the district on Sunday, relatives and police officials said.
His body was laid to rest in his home town of Marja district amidst condemnations of his brutal murder by his organisation, the Afghan government, journalists’ associations in Kabul and other parts of the country and the civil society. Police is still clueless as who abducted and killed the journalist. Also the Taliban militants, who had killed one of the five journalists that killed in Afghanistan last year, said they were not responsible.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said their men were not involved in Rohani’s killing.
The militants had beheaded an Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi, who was abducted along with an Italian journalist in the same province.
The Italian journalist was freed alive after a secret deal with his government. The BBC, in its statement on Rohani’s murder, said: “His death is a terrible loss – our thoughts are with his friends and family. We are working closely with his family to support them at this difficult time.” While condemning the killing of Samad Rohani, the United Nations’ Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) asked to Afghan government to do all to unveil the killers and bring them to the book.