According to media watchdog Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan – Nai, Safar Mohammad, an employee of Radio Samon was killed by unknown gunmen in eastern Helmand province.

He was a part-time technical worker with the station.

The director of Radio Samon, Hayatullah Sahel, told Nai: “Safar Muhammad was invited to a party and his corpse was found from Safeyan area of Lashkargah city.”

While the motive behind the killing is not clear, Nai has called in local officials to seriously investigate if the reason behind his murder was kinked to his occupation.

Mohammad Omar Zwak, a spokesman for provincial governor, said that an investigation was launched into the incident.

In December last year, a report published by Nai Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan had claimed that violence against media workers and journalists in the country has reduced by 50% in 2019 as compared to the previous year. A total of 10 journalists and media workers were killed last year.

This is the first incident of killing a media worker in Afghanistan in 2020.