The New York Times
September 9, 2009, in an area near Kunduz, Afghanistan
Munadi and Times colleague Stephen Farrell were kidnapped by the Taliban on September 4. Munadi was killed during a British military rescue mission, which freed Farrell. Farrell told the Times he did not know the source of fire that killed Munadi. The Times reported that the British decision to attempt the rescue came after Afghan government agents had learned that the captors were planning to move the journalists into Pakistan.
The two men were covering the aftermath of a NATO raid on two hijacked fuel tankers near Kunduz in which scores of Afghan civilians were reportedly killed. Munadi was a well-respected Afghan reporter who had just returned to the country for the presidential election held in August. He had been studying in Germany for a master’s degree in public policy. Munadi had been a long-time reporter for the Times and other publications, with many bylined stories.
Farrell said they were given food, water, and blankets and not harmed while they were being held. But Munadi was taunted by the kidnappers, who told him to remember the case of Ajmal Naqshbandi, an Afghan reporter who was beheaded after being taken by the Taliban in Helmand province in 2007. Naqshbandi had been working with an Italian journalist, La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who had been set free shortly before.
“I did not think they were going to kill me,” Farrell told the Times in a story that recounted the incident. “I did think they were going to kill him.”
Anger among Afghan journalists rose in the days after Munadi’s death. On September 13 many of his colleagues signed a letter calling on the government for “serious and thorough investigations to identify the perpetrators of this inhumane act.”
Medium: Print
Job: Print Reporter
Beats Covered: Human Rights, War
Gender: Male
Local or Foreign: Local
Freelance: Yes
Type of Death: Murder
Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group
Impunity: Yes
Taken Captive: Yes
Threatened: Yes
