Female journalist shot dead in Kabul laid to rest

KABUL: The body of Mina Mangal, a former journalist and a cultural advisor to the Wolesi Jirga, the Lower House of Parliament, who was killed in an attack by unknown gunmen in the eastern parts of Kabul on Friday, was laid to rest on Saturday.

Her relatives said the attackers shot her nine times. Although motives behind the murder have yet to be cleared, officials in the Afghan Ministry of Interior said the murder might have roots in family issues.

“They took my daughter in the car, injected her 13 times. Her clothes are still stained with blood. She was beaten. I have proof. I have videos. I have every evidence and I have the file,” said Mangal’s mother.

Mina Mangal married two years ago and was separated from her husband due to domestic violence as her relatives described. “She faced oppression from the day she was engaged until her marriage. We want justice,” said Hammasa, a relative of Mangal.

“Two courts have issued their verdicts. They kidnapped my daughter. Of course, they have committed this act,” said Mangal’s father Talib Jan. The Attorney General’s Office said the court had confirmed the separation of Mina Mangal from her husband two years ago.

“Two years have passed since they filed a complaint. In 1396 (2017), their case was referred to the Kabul judiciary, but after that, no complaint was filed in relation to threats or any other issue,” said AGO spokesman Jamshid Rasuli. Mina Mangal had worked as a news presenter for three local TV networks in Kabul, including LEMAR TV, Shamshad News, Ariana TV, and she was a cultural advisor for the Wolesi Jirga.

She came under attack by unknown gunmen in Kart-e-Naw area in Kabul’s PD8 on Saturday morning, the statement said. Police have started an investigation into the Incident, said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for Ministry of Interior Affairs. A report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released in April shows that for Afghanistan’s journalists, 2018 was the deadliest year since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

According to the report, a total of 15 journalists and media workers were killed in a series of bombings that began early in the year, nine of them in a single day. Mangal was born in Paktia province and studied journalism in Kabul. She worked in media for ten years and has written a couplet in Pashto.