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Ghani says aim of recent attacks is to undermine trust among young Afghans
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Monday that the recent spate of attacks across the country, including targeted killings, is aimed at eroding trust in government and undermining stability.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Ghani said the latest attacks against journalists, civil society members and activists, government employees and civilians in general, are attacks against a generation and the values of Afghanistan.
“These attacks are aimed at undermining the stability of our country, eroding the trust among our young generation and particularly to deprive Afghan women of a future,” Ghani told his cabinet.
“The attacks on Yama Siawash, Yousef Rashid, Malala Maiwand, Elias Daye, Rahmatullah Nikzad, Freshta Kohestani, Fatemeh Khalil, the doctors of Pul-e-charkhi Prison and our other colleagues, is attack on a generation and all our values and attack on our heart and conscience,” Ghani added.
President Ghani instructed the security agencies to take urgent and comprehensive measures to identify and punish the perpetrators of recent attacks and end the killings.
The President also instructed the relevant ministries, especially the Ministry of Interior and the judiciary, to prosecute criminals and terrorists and speed up the process.
This comes after a string of attacks left five media workers dead in two months – and a number of civil society activists dead or wounded amid a marked increase in targeted killings and attempted assassinations.
In a statement issued by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on Monday, the organization stated that the Afghan government and Taliban urgently need to consider and respond to the demands of the Afghan media for support, safety, protection, timely investigations and access to information.
The AIHRC said targeted killings of journalists in the past few months have had a negative impact on media across the country and that many female journalists from the provinces have left their jobs.