“The Taliban have two major problems: one is the media and the second is a vibrant civil society,” said a Kabul journalist who has to change his route into work every day to avoid detection. “Therefore, the Taliban want to tackle them.”
The Taliban officially deny involvement in the attacks, which have included street shootings and the placement of magnetic “sticky” bombs on victims’ cars.
A damaged vehicle in a sticky bomb attack that killed a policeman is removed from the site in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday. Credit:AP
Yet some commanders admitted that they considered prominent liberals a target.
“All those killed were standing with the occupation,” said one junior commander called Mujahid Rahaman. “Afghan journalists and civil society are evil. They are dancing for the occupation of Afghanistan, misguiding Afghans and spreading secularism. They must stop urgently,” he said. The killings are thought to include a tangle of copycat attacks, personal disputes and assaults by other groups, officials and diplomats believe, but most are directed by the Taliban.
Saad Mohseni, whose prominent Moby media group has lost 11 journalists in the past five years, said the current campaign was an escalation of a long-standing Taliban tactic.
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He said: “They intimidate people, their critics, and they get rid of more moderate voices. It also gives people the sense that the state cannot protect you whereas we can, and it builds pressure on the government to make concessions when it comes to peace talks.”
The killings bear grim echoes of earlier phases in the country’s four-decade war when intellectuals and liberals were also snuffed out by conservatives wanting to control society.
Appeals to the Taliban to impose a ceasefire as part of stumbling peace talks with the Afghan government have so far been rejected.
