Ex Afghanistan VP Amrullah Saleh launches attack on Taliban for kidnapping journalists

Afghanistan's former Vice President Amrullah Saleh on Feb. 10 launched another defiant attack against the hardline fundamentalist Taliban regime as he accused them of atrocities in Kabul against the journalists. Ex official of the exiled Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani, and head of the anti-Taliban resistance movement ‘National Resistance Front’ (NRF) condemned the Taliban for the kidnapping of the former BBC colleagues of British journalist Andrew North, and at least two journalists on assignment with UNHCR.

“Due to no media, no reporting by citizens, and a suffocating atmosphere corruption, crime, and atrocities, [Taliban] aren’t well exposed,” said the former Afghan vice president. Furthermore, Saleh stated that at least nine citizens of western countries have been kidnapped by the Taliban, including  Peter Juvenal, owner of Gandomak Restaurant, and Andrew North of BBC. 

On Feb. 11, news channel AFIntl and reports corroborated by several local Afghan media outlets claimed that BBC’s North, who at the time he was held by the Taliban worked with United Nations (UN) has been put into the Afghan jail. Taliban’s attempts of stifling the press voices were widely denounced. A BBC spokesperson confirmed the claims with ‘The i’ newspaper and pointed at a tweet by the BBC world news executive editor Paul Danahar who expressed concern about the former BBC journalist. “Andrew North is working for the UN in Kabul. He is a former colleague and a respected journalist. All inquiries about his situation, which his friends and colleagues are obviously concerned about, should be directed to the UN,” the British Broadcasting Corp’s Danahar wrote in a post.

The British outlets reached out to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan for the response on the Taliban’s recent jailing of international journalists. North, a foreign correspondent, had been employed with the BBC for over 14 years. He had contributed to reports from the regions including Kabul, Baghdad, and Washington. British newspaper reports that his Twitter was last active on 6 February. 

“Two journalists with UNHCR and Afghan nationals working with them have been detained in Kabul. We are doing our utmost to resolve the situation, in coordination with others,” the UNHCR said in a tweet. “We will make no further comment given the nature of the situation.”

Taliban launched manhunt for DW's journalist, shot down his family

Responding to the situation, Saleh claimed that eight Westerners have been “kidnapped” by the Taliban since the chaotic withdrawal of US troops. He had repeatedly accused the Taliban of committing war crimes and having no regard for International Humanitarian Law. A member of a Taliban intelligence unit in Kabul told the Washington Post that the hardline regime has held “several foreign nationals” in Kabul on charges of working for Western intelligence agencies and their fate remains unclear. The fundamentalist group had earlier launched a manhunt for German broadcaster DW’s journalist and had shot dead one member of his family and seriously injured another.

The Taliban men did a house-to-house search to try and find the journalist, prompting many to run for safe hiding. "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 had said in a statement, registering strong condemnation against Taliban.