New York, August 9, 2022 – Taliban authorities must stop their attack on the press and ensure that those who harass and attack journalists are responsible, the committee to protect journalists say Tuesday.
On August 4, Taliban armed members attacked and arrested the team with Indian Indian announcer Wion News, including reporter Anas Mallick, producer Zakaria (who used one name), and driver Mayel Kharoti, according to Wion News and Mallick, who spoke with CPJ by telephone.
The team was shooting due to the Job Deep Drone U.S. who killed Al-Qaida Ayman Al-Zawahri’s leader, in Kabul, from their vehicle when the Taliban members stop them, confiscated Mallick’s cellphone, and pulled the team out of their vehicles, where they punched them on their heads and backs, according to sources-sources that.
The people brought the team to the nearest Taliban post in the Wazir Akbar Khan area in Kabul, where they were asked about their work and religion; The three were then transferred to the Directorate of General Intelligence of the Taliban, according to Mallick and the report.
Authorities accuse Mallick, who is a Pakistani citizen, as a eye -eyes, and hold it overnight before releasing it without cost, he said, added that his colleagues were released, also without cost, on August 7.
Taliban harassment of the team with Indian broadcasters Wion News, including Pakistani reporters Anas Mallick and his colleagues in Afghanistan Zakaria and Mayel Kharoti, showed again that they did not respect the journalism profession,” CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg said. “Taliban members and the Directorate of General Intelligence must allow local and international journalists to work freely.”
When detained at the Taliban facility in Wazir Akbar Khan, officers checked Mallick’s phone and asked why he filmed the drone strike scene, he said. The officers also accused him of being a Christian or a Hindu, and when he said he was a Muslim, they called him an eye, the journalist told CPJ.
Mallick said he insisted that he was a journalist, and when he told the Taliban members to examine that he had recently interviewed Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, they answered that they did not know who Muttaqi was.
After about 90 minutes in custody, the Directorate of Intelligence Officers closed his eyes and handcuffed Mallick, Zakaria and Kharoti, and took him separately to the GDI office in Kabul, Mallick told CPJ.
There, a GDI officer asked Mallick about his personal and professional life, the contents of his cellphone, and his journey history in Afghanistan, he said.
GDI agents in various ways to interrogate Mallick in Pashto and England, Mallick told CPJ. He said the agent first accused him of being a member of the Pakistan Intelligence Agency; When they learned that he worked for Indian broadcasters, they accused him of being a member of the Indian raw intelligence agency; And when they saw the picture on Mallick’s phone showing him in front of the U.S. Capitol, they accused him of working for the CIA.
At one point during his detention, two Taliban agents came to the Mallick interrogation room and attached the battery with the cable to his left ear, the journalist told CPJ; He said they laughed, and set the battery to pretend to be as if they would electrocute it.
Mallick said GDI officers then took him to cells that had an Afghan prisoner and several surveillance cameras. He was detained in the room for about eight hours, and then on the morning of August 5 he was released without an explanation or indictment submitted to him, he said to CPJ. He said he had spent a total of about 21 hours in detention, where his family and employer had no information about his status. He added that he did not know exactly where he was detained while in GDI detention.
Mallick told CPJ that he experienced medical problems after the beating August 4, said that he had an imbala fluid