Afghan Studies Center and the Center for Research & Security Studies extend their heartfelt condolences for the atrocious and senseless killing of 28-year-old, young Afghan reporter Samim Faramarz that was unfortunately captured live on national television on Wednesday.
Faramarz was on air when the blast from a large explosion cut off the broadcast and killed both him and the cameraman, along with 24 others. The reporter’s last words were:
“The area is completely terrorized. I can smell blood here, and as you can see in the pictures …”
Faramarz had finished his day’s assignment on Wednesday when the news of an explosion in a wrestling gym in the western part of Kabul claimed by the Islamic State took him and his cameraman, Ramiz Ahmady, 23-year old, to the scene. They reported live from there as the victims were carried by other young men from the gym onto any vehicles they could find when a second blast took place and ended the broadcast.
Faramarz is the latest journalist to be brutally killed while working to highlight the human toll of the war in Afghanistan like many others.
In September 2016 following a double bombing in Kabul, Faramarz wrote in a post on Facebook, “We live death.” Little did he know the same fate would follow him two years later.
In June 2017, after a suicide bombing inside a mosque where the poor were being fed, Faramarz wrote, “Has anyone asked who are the luckier ones: those who die in terrorist attacks and leave this world, or those who are left living to see this oppression with their own eyes.”
The news certainly is heartbreaking as the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan persists with the fighting only intensifying. ASC and CRSS extend their deepest condolences to the bereaved families of the victims and hope the conflict in Afghanistan soon finds its peaceful resolution and that the menace of terrorism, which has claimed the lives of thousands so far and continues to do so, can finally be brought to an end.
Read his full story here.
© Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) and Afghan Studies Center (ASC), Islamabad.
