Mob incited by imam attacks radio station to silence loud music

KABUL, Afghanistan — An angry mob ransacked a radio station in the northern city of Kunduz last week after a mosque imam incited the attackers, claiming loud music played by the station had interfered with his prayer service, an international journalists group said Tuesday.

The International Federation of Journalists condemned Friday’s attack.

It quoted Mohsen Ahmad, director of the Zohra Radio station targeted in the attack, as saying the mob had damaged equipment and forced it to halt transmission for several hours. No one was hurt.

“The safety situation for journalists in Afghanistan must be a major priority for the Afghanistan government,” the Brusselsbased IFJ said.

The Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association said the same mob also tried to attack two other nearby radio stations but were prevented from entering by policemen who arrived at the scene.

Afghanistan has seen a wave of attacks in recent months against journalists, human rights activists and civil society members. The international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders has called the country one of the world’s deadliest for journalists.

On Jan. 1, journalist and human rights activist Bismillah Adil Aimaq was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on the road near Feroz Koh, the capital of western Ghor province.

He was the fifth journalist slain since October. Rahmatullah Nekzad, who headed the journalists’ union in eastern Ghazni province, was killed by armed men outside his home in late December. Nekzad was well known in the area and had contributed to the Associated Press since 2007 after previously working for the Al Jazeera satellite TV channel.