Gunmen attack Kabul TV station, use ‘rockets’, 20 staffers wounded

Mangalore Today News Network

Kabul , Nov 07, 2017 : Gunmen stormed a television station in Kabul on Tuesday killing at least one person in an ongoing attack, officials said, in the latest deadly assault targeting Afghan journalists.

 

The militants were firing rocket propelled grenades at heavily armed security forces surrounding Shamshad TV, an AFP photographer said, as some staff remained trapped inside the building.

As the attack unfolded, the Pashto language broadcaster stopped normal programming, transmitting only a still image.

A tweet from the Shamshad TV’s Twitter account said staffers reported several casualties inside the building and staff members reached by telephone said between two and five people appeared to have been killed.

It added that at least 20 staffers and journalists have been wounded.

Security forces were trying to blast their way through a wall of the compound in order to enter the station.

Officer Jan Agha said the first attacker was a suicide bomber. Najib Danishe, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said there were three attackers and one of was killed by police.

According to TOLO news, a local TV channel, the chief of Shamshad TV said such attacks will not stop the Afghan media from covering news and delivering stories to the people.

Gunshots could be heard inside the building every few minutes as more and more security forces swarmed the area.

“The security forces have been able to rescue a large number of Shamshad TV staff. Initial information on casualties shows at least one guard has lost his life,” Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said.

There was no immediate indication of the identity of the attackers but Taliban insurgents issued an immediate denial that they were involved.

“I saw three attackers on security cameras entering the TV station building. They first shot the guard and then entered the building. They started throwing grenades and firing,” said Shamshad TV reporter Faisal Zaland, who escaped through a back door.

Zaland told AFP that security forces were in the area of the Shamshad compound in the Afghan capital “trying to bring down the attackers”.

“Many of my colleagues are still in the building,” he added.

The attack is the latest in a series of assaults on Afghan journalists and media workers. Last year, seven members of Afghanistan’s largest private television station, Tolo, were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber.


courtesy:HT