Deutsche Welle Says Relative of Its German Journalist Shot Dead by Taliban

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) said that a relative of one of its journalists was killed by the Taliban* in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

While conducting a house-to-house search in a hunt for a DW journalist, Taliban militants shot dead one of his relatives and severely injured another one, while other family members managed to escape and are currently on the run.

"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," DW Director General Peter Limbourg stated on Thursday.

Limbourg called for urgent action as Taliban are carrying out organized searches for journalists. The Taliban have already raided the homes of three DW employees, with some other pressmen killed or kidnapped by the Islamist movement. In mid-July, Indian photojournalist with Reuters and Pulitzer Prize winner Danish Siddiqui was killed in the Kandahar province.

On 15 August, the Taliban entered Kabul. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani resigned and fled abroad. The seizure of power has forced thousands of Afghans to depart from the country for fear of reprisals from the militants, adding to the hectic situation at Kabul airport. While the Taliban promised to allow news media to operate freely, the journalist community fears for its safety, expressing the gravest concerns about female journalists in the country.

*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries