The New York Times
September 9, 2009, in an area near Kunduz, Afghanistan
Munadi and Times colleague Stephen Farrell were kidnapped by the Taliban on September 5. Munadi was shot four days later during a British military rescue mission that freed Farrell, a British-Irish national. Farrell told the Times he did not know the source of fire that killed the Afghan journalist. The Times reported that the British decision to attempt the rescue came after Afghan government agents learned that the captors were planning to move the journalists into Pakistan.
The two men were abducted while covering the aftermath of a NATO raid on
two hijacked fuel tankers near Kunduz in which scores of Afghan civilians were
reportedly killed. Munadi was a well-respected Afghan reporter who had just
returned to the country for the presidential election held in August. He had
been studying in
Farrell said the two were given food, water, and blankets,
and were not harmed while they were being held. But he said that Munadi
was taunted by the kidnappers, who told him to remember the case of Ajmal
Naqshbandi, an Afghan reporter who was beheaded after being taken by the
Taliban in
Munadi’s remains were not recovered by the British rescue team. British military authorities released few details about the mission and did not respond to inquiries from CPJ seeking information about the circumstances of his death, whether his rescue was an objective of the mission, or whether the troops had sufficient information to identify him as one of the captives.
Anger among Afghan journalists rose in the days after Munadi’s death. On September 13, many of his colleagues signed a letter calling on the Afghan government to undertake “serious and thorough investigations to identify the perpetrators of this inhumane act.”
In November, CPJ called on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to undertake a thorough investigation into the rescue mission, noting that many questions were left unanswered in the aftermath.
Medium: Print
Job: Print Reporter
Beats Covered: Human Rights, War
Gender: Male
Local or Foreign: Local
Freelance: Yes
Type of Death: Dangerous Assignment
Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group
Related Articles:
- As with Norgrove, a need to probe Munadi death, October 11, 2010
- CPJ calls for UK to investigate Munadi death in rescue, March 1, 2010
- As fighting surges, so does danger to press, February 16, 2010
- Attacks on the Press 2009: Afghanistan, February 16, 2010
- Casualties of foreign journalists mount in Afghanistan, January 11, 2010
