New Delhi:
NDTV is joining a global voluntary boycott by international media of the Afghan Taliban after they murdered nine innocent civilians including five and three-year-old children in Kabul.
Five-year-old Niloufer and her three-year-old brother Omar, along with their father Sardar Ahmad and mother Humaira, were shot dead in cold blood at point blank range in an attack in Kabul's Serena Hotel on Thursday. Five other innocent people were also murdered in a senseless act of Taliban violence.
Four teenage Taliban attackers entered the hotel from the street at 18:57 on Thursday. They were called back by the guard for a first body search. Slipping through were the guns and bullets smuggled in their socks and large shoes.
They then went through a metal detector and a second frisking in a room with a metal door that is electronically opened after security personnel give the green signal. On their right is the X-ray machine for any bags being carried. The four attackers had none.
They entered the hotel's lobby soon after; a hotel security guard behind them did not suspect anything.
They hid in washrooms for two hours and emerged around 20:57 when the weekend and Nowroz - New Year celebrations - and dinner had begun. In cold blood-execution style, they shot seven people dead in the restaurant and two more in the hallway. Security forces ended the attack, killing the four attackers over the next two hours.
Among the dead is a Paraguayan poll observer, Luis Maria Duarte, and a Canadian development worker, Zeenab Kassam. Also among the dead are one of the country's best known journalists - the AFP's Sardar Ahmad, his wife, son and daughter. One-and-a-half-year-old Abuzar was also shot in the head and is still critical. Sources say the family was initially spared as the attackers went after foreigners and Sardar spoke to them in Pashto. But, then after re-loading their pistols, they shot the family dead.
Hundreds of journalists and international media organisations are enforcing a voluntary ban on broadcasting Taliban attacks like this. A statement by the Afghan journalists' fraternity says: "The Taliban carry out such attacks, which can never be justified, solely for the purposes of news coverage and projecting terror among Afghan citizens. Therefore, the journalism family in Afghanistan, in a collective decision, has decided to boycott coverage of news related to the Taliban for a period of 15 days. We also ask the Taliban for an explanation of how they justify the shooting from a close range of innocent children."