I've just learned via LGF that Ajmal Naqshbandi, Afghan fixer, companion of kidnapped Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, and Lightstalkers member, has been beheaded by the Taliban monsters, meeting the same fate as Daniele's driver.
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan officials have confirmed that the Taliban militia executed an Afghan reporter who was abducted with an Italian journalist last month, an Afghan news agency reported Sunday.May he rest in peace.
Intelligence services spokesman Saeed Ansari confirmed that the radical Islamist militia had executed Ajmal Naqshbandi on Sunday, the private Pajhwok news agency reported.
Ansari also said Rahmatullah Hanefi, the head of the Emergency non-governmental organisation that brokered Mastrogiacomo's March 19 release, had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the abduction. [Ed.: This is VERY interesting—if true, this man has the blood of two innocent reporters on his hands!]
The Taliban earlier Sunday announced they had beheaded Naqshbandi after the government failed to respond to their demands for the release of jailed insurgents.
I can only hope that the savages that did this will be on the receiving end of a bomb sooner than later.
Update: Dan Goldberg over at the CJR Daily has chosen the quote above by yours truly to illustrate the "outrage" that's pouring out over Ajmal's horrific demise.
Let me be perfectly clear: There can be no negotiating with an enemy that does not play by the rules of civilized warfare.
Ajmal was not a combatant. He was not a spy. His crime was nothing more than accompanying a journalist to an area controlled by savage thugs to document their activity—perhaps even to present the "Taliban's" side of the war in the coverage sent to La Repubblica. You'll note that under the rules of Geneva, Daniele Mastrogiacomo and all of his travelling companions would be classified as non-combatants. Unequivocally.
With all that in mind, I think what Ajmal deserved was to live. Seeing how he was denied that "basic human right" by the murderous thugs who kidnapped him, I would definitely not be shedding any tears if said thugs were to meet the same fate.
I hope that helps to clarify my position on this horrific event, Dan.
