By Catherine Putz
By labeling TOLOnews a foreign “intelligence network” the Taliban are trying to justify the murder of civilians.
A suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday targeted a bus carrying employees of the MOBY Group which owns TOLOnews, one of Afghanistan’s most popular private news outlets. The employees killed worked in video editing, dubbing, graphics and decoration, and also included a driver. Early reports said a man on motorbike rammed the bus, but authorities later said it was a car packed with explosives. Twenty-six other civilians were injured in the blast, which took place near the Russian Embassy.
The attack was eventually claimed by the Taliban, which said in a statement, as reported by Al Jazeera, that “Kabul resident Faridullah conducted the attack… The vehicle [a minibus that was targeted] has been under our surveillance for a long time.”
In October 2015, the Taliban issued death threats against journalists in Afghanistan after negative coverage of the events in Kunduz. As reported by the New York Times in October, the director of TOLOnews, Lotfullah Najafizada, said the Taliban’s statement–labeling reporters “enemy personnel”– “was the first of its kind in the past 14 or 15 years, and it took us by surprise.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat