Three women who worked for a local radio and television station in eastern Afghanistan were gunned down in two separate attacks Tuesday afternoon, the station confirmed in a statement.
Enikass Radio said in a statement Tuesday that unidentified gunmen shot and killed three of its female employees in the city of Jalalabad. A fourth woman was injured in one of the attacks and taken to a hospital, a spokesman for the provincial hospital said, according to Reuters.
The station’s publishing manager Shokrullah Pasoon said one of the women, Mursal Wahidi, was killed when walking home while the other two, identified as Shahnaz and Sadi, were killed in a separate incident, the Associated Press reported. The women dubbed popular movies from Turkey and India into Afghanistan’s local languages of Dari and Pashto.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called the attack an “unforgivable crime” in a statement, adding that killing fellow citizens — especially women — is “contrary to the teachings of Islam, Afghan culture and the spirit of peace.”
Ghani notably referred to the killings as a “terrorist attack” and suggested the Taliban was responsible. In his statement, he slammed the Taliban for “perpetrating such acts of cowardice and creating an environment of terror and intimidation.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a statement shared on social media, denied any involvement and said the attack “has no connection” with the militant insurgent group.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. But an Islamic State affiliate in December 2020 claimed the killing of Malala Maiwand, another female employee at Enikass Radio, according to the Associated Press. (RELATED: At Least 5 People Killed In Multiple Suspected Terror Attacks In Afghanistan)
Tuesday’s attack is the latest in a growing spree of targeted killings across Afghanistan. A recent United Nations report found more than 30 media workers and journalists have been killed in the country since 2018.
The U.N. report said recent attacks amounted to an “intentional, premeditated, and deliberate targeting of human rights defenders, journalists and media workers.”