PESHAWAR
Condition of foreign journalist who was attacked by an Afghan police official is out of danger and has been shifted from Khost to Kabul.
“I visited hospital and met doctors, who have shown satisfaction regarding condition of Kathy Gannon,” Khost Governor Jabbar Naeemi told Pakistan Today on Saturday. He said that doctors have made a tremendous effort to save the precious life, as she is very popular among the Afghans.
Showing his resentment over the terrorist attack on the journalists, Naeemi termed it not only an inhuman and immoral act but said, “It is contrary to Afghan traditions.”
Both the foreign journalists were not only guests in Afghanistan but were women, he remarked, adding that stern action would be taken against the terrorists involved in this immoral and inhuman act. The accused, who opened fire on the journalists, has been arrested.
Both Gannon and her colleague Anja Niedringhaus were attacked by an Afghan police official in Khost while they were waiting for a convoy. Niedringhaus, a renowned photojournalists and holder of Pulitzer Prize had lost her life on the spot whereas Gannon received multiple bullet injuries. Accused Naqeebullah was arrested and is now being interrogated.
To a question, Naeemi said, “Despite its geographical location, Khost is being considered as secure and peaceful province of Afghanistan. But attack on two foreign journalists has damaged such image of this zone. At the moment, I am in a polling station, where hundreds of people are in queue, waiting for their turn to cast vote in presidential polls.”
While expressing satisfaction over the polls, the governor said that they were being held in a peaceful atmosphere. This time the Afghans are taking more interest in the election process as compared to 2009 polls, he concluded.