Relative of Deutsche Welle journalist killed by Taliban

While trying to track down western-affiliated journalists, the Taliban fighter allegedly shot dead a family member of an editor working for Deutsche Welle and seriously injured another, the German public broadcaster has said.

More so, the state-owned broadcaster said the Taliban had carried out house-to-house searches in western Afghanistan to try to find the journalist, who had already relocated to Germany.

Other family members managed to escape at the last minute and were now on the run, a Deutsche Welle spokesperson said.

The broadcaster’s director-general, Peter Limbourg, called on the German government to do more to help Afghans who worked with western media in the country.

“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” Limbourg said.

“It is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organised searches for journalists, both in Kabul and in the provinces. We are running out of time.”

The reported reprisals against journalists with links to western news outlets undermines Taliban claims it would not seek retaliation against perceived dissident, and runs counter to the media-friendly image the military group have sought to create by allowing some of its representatives to be interviewed by female presenters for television channels.

In spite of that, the Taliban have raided the homes of at least three journalists affiliated with Deutsche Welle, a German international broadcaster available in 30 languages.

Other Afghan journalists have been killed or abducted. On 8 August, unidentified gunmen shot and killed Toofan Omar, a manager of the privately-owned broadcaster Paktia Ghag Radio.