Afghanistan: Journalists tell of beatings by Taliban
AFGHANISTAN
Journalists in Afghanistan say that they have been beaten, detained and flogged by the Taliban when attempting to cover protests.
Photos circulating online show two journalists from Etilaatroz newspaper with welts and bruises after their arrest in the capital Kabul.
One of them, Taqi Daryabi, told the BBC he had been taken to a district police station where he was kicked and beaten.
On Wednesday, the BBC’s team were also prevented from filming.
Mr Daryabi, alongside Etilaatroz’s photographer Nematullah Naqdi, had been covering a women’s protest in
Wednesday.
Afterwards, they were taken to a police station, where they say they were beaten with batons, electrical cables and whips. A few hours later, they were released by the Taliban, without explanation.
“They took me to another room and handcuffed my hands behind me,” he told the BBC’s Secunder Kermani in Kabul. “I decided not to defend myself because I thought they would just beat me even worse, so I lay down on floor in a position to protect the front of my body.
“Eight of them came and they started beating
Kabul
on me... Using sticks, police sticks, rubber - whatever they had in their hands. The scar on my face is from shoes where they kicked me in face.
“I was unconscious after that so they stopped. They took me to another building where there were cells and left me.”
Mr Daryabi said he had fallen unconscious after the beating, and that after about two hours he had been released.
“I could barely walk but they were telling us to walk quickly. I was in very bad pain.”
Nematullah Naqdi said Taliban fighters had tried to take away his camera as soon as he started taking photographs of the protest.