Abdul Hamid Hotaki
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 25, 2019
An Afghan reporter has died from injuries suffered in an explosion near the election campaign headquarters of President Ashraf Ghani in the city of Kandahar.
Hewad TV said in a Facebook post on September 25 that Abdul Hamid Hotaki died in hospital from “heavy wounds” suffered in the blast, which killed three others, including a child, and wounded at least seven.
“Hotaki is the seventh journalist to be killed in #Afghanistan in 2019,” the Afghanistan Journalists Center said in a tweet noting Hotaki’s death.
The Interior Ministry has blamed the attack on Taliban militants, though no one has taken responsibility for the explosion, which comes just days before a presidential election on September 28.
Afghanistan is the world’s deadliest conflict, and security fears have been a hallmark of the campaign, even in the heavily guarded capital, Kabul.
Ghani, the incumbent, has mostly campaigned remotely, addressing small gatherings outside the heavily militarized capital via Skype or telephone.
Ghani and his leading rival, Abdullah Abdullah, are expected to place first and second respectively among the 16 candidates in the election. The top two vote getters will then head to a runoff election.
A suicide bombing that killed 26 people last week near an election rally in Parwan Province, north of Kabul, where Ghani was due to speak, came as a sharp reminder of the dangers.
The Taliban group that ruled much of the country until 2001 and opposes Afghanistan’s central government is estimated to control or contest nearly half of Afghanistan’s 400 districts, depriving many in rural regions of the right to vote.
The Taliban considers the Afghan government a U.S. puppet and has warned Afghans not to vote, saying that polling stations will be targeted by militant attacks.