Yama Siawash
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
November 7, 2020
Two senior employees of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, including a former popular TV news presenter, have been killed in a car bombing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, police said.
A bomb attached to the vehicle of Yama Siawash, a former presenter on Afghanistan’s Tolo TV, exploded early on November 7, killing Siawash and two other civilians.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
Siawash had recently begun working with the Central Bank and was in a bank vehicle along with another senior employee, Ahmadullah Anas and the driver, Mohammad Amin. All died in the explosion, police said.
Siawash previously anchored political programs on Tolo TV.
Violence and chaos have increased in Afghanistan in recent months with an attack last week on Kabul University that killed 22 people, many of them students.
The Islamic State affiliate claimed that attack as well as another assault on an educational institution on October 24, also in the capital, that killed 24 people.
The surge in violent attacks comes as government negotiators and the Taliban are meeting in Qatar to find an end to decades of relentless war in Afghanistan. The two sides have made little progress.
Washington’s peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been pressing for an agreement on a reduction in violence or a cease-fire, which the Taliban have refused, saying a permanent cease-fire would be part of the negotiations.
The talks were part of a negotiated agreement between the United States and the Taliban to allow U.S. and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan, ending 19 years of military engagement.
Based on reporting by AP and Khaama Press
Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
More Security News