An Afghan journalist working with Afghanistan's first independent news channel Tolo News, has denied the reports of his death in a tweet. On Thursday, talking to the microblogging site said that he was beaten by the Taliban and was hit at gunpoint while he was on an assignment in Kabul.
Tolo News had confirmed that its reporter Ziar Yaad Khan had died.
"I was beaten by the Taliban in Kabul's New City while reporting. Cameras, technical equipment and my personal mobile phone have also been hijacked. Some people have spread the news of my death which is false. The Taliban got out of an armoured Land Cruiser and hit me at gunpoint," tweeted Mr Khan.
BBC’s Nicola Careem in her tweet pointed that the reports of Mr Khan’s death were wrongly translated tweets from the Tolo News which was in Urdu.
“Some people have spread the news of my death which is false,” the TOLO News journalist said. “I was beaten by the Taliban in Kabul’s New City while reporting.”
The Taliban confiscated all technical equipment and his personal mobile phone, Zaad said. “I still don’t know why they behaved like that and suddenly attacked me,” added the journalist. He further wrote that the Taliban’s actions were an indication of a serious threat to freedom of speech in Afghanistan.
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The return of the Taliban in Afghanistan after 20 years has shaken the world concerning they might avenge their opponents. Mostly, the situation may turn grave for women and girls who fear losing freedom under the jihadist group rule.
“There are grave fears for women, for journalists and for the new generation of civil society leaders who have emerged in the past years,” United Nations Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet had said on Tuesday.
She also added: “Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic and religious minorities are also at risk of violence and repression, given previous patterns of serious violations under Taliban rule and reports of killings and targeted attacks in recent months.”
Pulitzer prize-winner Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui who was working with the media house Reuters was killed in July in Afghanistan's Kandahar while reporting. Mr Siddiqui was working long with the Afghan Special Forces covering the operations in combat with the Taliban forces.
Reports said he was captured and his body was mutilated by the Taliban.
However, the reports were rejected by the Taliban.
Muhammad Sohail Shaheen, the spokesperson of the Taliban's political office in Doha, Qatar, said he was killed in a crossfire and that he made an error of not cooperating with the Taliban fighters.
"Journalists from around the world, if they want to come to our areas and file reports, they can come...They can open branches in our areas to see the ground reality with their own eyes,” Shaheen said when asked if journalists will be allowed to work in Afghanistan anymore.
BBC had reported that Taliban militants were going door-to-door searching people who have worked with the previous Afghan government and NATO. Meanwhile, they are also killing journalists in the door-to-door search. Female tv anchors and journalists were asked to leave the office as women are not supposed to work and reveal their faces.