An Afghan radio broadcaster says US forces beat and threatened to kill him in order to extract information during his detention after raiding his station.
Qazi Nasir Mudassir stated on Saturday that he had expected that if armed men were to climb over the walls of the radio station building, they would probably be Taliban militants trying to make good on their death threats due to his pro-government broadcast reports, the New York Times reported.
Instead, according to accounts disclosed by Mudassir and local Afghan police, the armed intruders were American Special Forces troops, who scaled his walls with ladders on February 27, arresting the station owner and two other employees of Radio Paighame Milli.
The station, according to the report, broadcasts in Mohammad Agha District of Logar Province, south of the capital, Kabul.
After the three journalists were released without charges the next day, Mudassir at first refused to discuss details of the incident, but then on Saturday he said US soldiers beat and threatened to kill him in an effort to extract information from him during detention.
He said the US forces were apparently unaware that his radio station “is supported in large part by pro-government, pro-coalition propaganda advertisements…,” the New York Times added.
The arrests, which briefly cut off the station’s broadcasts, also drew protests from Afghan journalist groups.
The US military initially claimed that the raid was “a largely Afghan operation” and refused to offer further comments beyond “a tersely worded statement released Saturday in the name of the International Security Assistance Forces Joint Command,” the report said.
MFB/HSN/SS
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