28-year-old Besmullah Adel Aimaq, an Afghan radio journalist was shot dead on Friday in a car ambush near Firoz Koh city in the central province of Ghor.

Aimaq, who was the editor-in-chief of Sada-e-Ghor radio station, is the fifth media worker to be killed in Afghanistan in two months.

In November, Aimaq posted on his personal Facebook account that unidentified people had shot at his house and car, and that he was unharmed and had reported the incidents to security officials.

No group has claimed responsibility for Aimaq’s murder, which follows a pattern of attacks on prominent Afghans in recent months.

A few weeks ago, Afghan journalist Rahmatullah Nekzad was murdered with a silenced pistol in the eastern city of Ghazni.

Last November, Radio Liberty reporter Aliyas Dayee was killed in a car bomb attack in southern Lashkar Gah city.

According to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CJP) released in December 2020, “the number of journalists singled out for murder in reprisal for their work more than doubled” last year.

“The killing of Afghan journalist Bismillah Adel Aimaq is a tragic start to the new year and shows that the alarming increase in attacks on the media in Afghanistan is continuing in 2021,” said Aliya Iftikhar, CPJ’s senior Asia researcher. “Afghan authorities must swiftly determine the motive in this killing, bring the perpetrators to account, and do everything in their power to ensure the safety of journalists.”

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