Afghan notebook: A voice silenced

By Harun Najafizada BBC Persian

Journalists remember Sardar Ahmad and his family at a candlelight vigil in Kabul

 

Journalists in Afghanistan have held a candlelight vigil in memory of Sardar Ahmad, the senior reporter for Agence France-Presse, who was killed in a Taliban attack on 20 March.

An experienced and popular journalist, Mr Ahmad was gunned down along with his wife and two of his young children at the Serena Hotel in Kabul. The BBC's Harun Najafizada remembers a colleague and friend.

I first met Sardar Ahmad in 2003 in the early days of the new Afghanistan.

It was a time of hope. The Taliban had gone, a new government was in place and our country seemed to be at the centre of the world's attention.

We had both just been recruited as reporters. Sardar was covering news coming out of Bagram, the largest US base in the country, while I was posted to Mazar-e Sharif in the north.

We often met in Kabul to chat about our stories and Afghan politics or just to listen to Hindi music that we both loved.

As the Taliban made a comeback and the security situation began to deteriorate we were both posted back to Kabul.

Sardar was a bright, energetic and committed journalist with eyes and ears always open.

With his charm and language skills, he built up an impressive network of contacts within the Afghan government, among international players, foreign journalists, local society and even within the insurgent networks.

He was key in covering Afghanistan for a world audience, always aware of the ups and downs of Afghan politics.

Sardar Ahmad in the AFP office in Kabul hours before he, his wife and two of his children were killed in the Serena hotel attack

 

And he was always full of fresh ideas - from the opening of a new bowling alley in Kabul, to police female commandos and most recently the fate of a pet lion he'd discovered being kept in a house in Kabul.

I last saw him in at an election rally here in Kabul, striding through the crowd with a camera on his shoulder. He smiled and waved to me from the other side of the Ghazi Stadium.

I thought to myself: 'I'll let him get on with his job and later in the week I'll go over to his place and we can go bowling.'

But a few days later, four teenage gunmen with pistols hidden in their socks penetrated several layers of security to attack the Serena Hotel in the centre of Kabul.

They shot my friend, his wife Humaira, his seven-year-old daughter Nilofar and his five-year-old son Omar from close range while they were having dinner to celebrate Nowruz, our New Year's eve.

Friends and family pray at Sardar's grave during his funeral in Kabul on 23 March

Shah Mohammad, Sardar's older brother bends down to kiss the picture of his niece Nilofar during the funeral ceremony in Kabul \

 

They also shot his younger son Abozar at least three times, but he survived and is now recovering to keep Sardar's name alive.

As details of the attack emerged later, Afghan officials said they did not believe Sardar was the target. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We began to worry when the usually regular tweets from Pressistan, the local news agency he founded, suddenly stopped.

We all wondered why Sardar was silent when such a big news story was happening in our city.

The next morning we found out that he had been silenced forever.

Like many other Afghan journalists, Sardar had many opportunities to leave the country and seek a better life abroad.

But he wanted to stay and be part of the transition process. He hoped that one day Afghanistan would leave violence and chaos behind and he looked forward to reporting on a more normal life.

Friends and family cover the grave of one of Sardar's children with soil during the funeral. Hundreds of well-wishers turned out in the pouring rain

Sardar's brother, Bashir Ahmad cries during the funeral ceremony in Kabul

 

When I first heard the news about his death I hoped against hope that it wasn't true. I felt shocked, angry and frustrated.

For many of us journalists in Kabul, Sardar's death has suddenly brought home the grim reality of the relentless violence in our country.

It's given a human face to civilian casualties that we have been reporting on for more than a decade.

It's one tragedy against the background of so many all across Afghanistan. But it's left everyone - not just the media community, feeling deeply shocked.

We will all miss Sardar very much.

Sardar Ahmad poses for a photograph with his daughter Nilofar and son Omar at the AFP office in Kabul in 2012

Himalayan massacre a blow to Pakistan mountaineering

Reuters: Sohail Shahzad. Pakistan's thriving tourism will be hit hard after Taliban militants killed 10 foreign climbers.

22 hr ago By Frank Jack Daniel of Reuters

 

Both the Taliban and another radical group have claimed credit for slaying 10 foreign climbers at a Himalayan base camp.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's once thriving mountaineering industry is reeling from the killing by militants of 10 foreign climbers, a massacre likely to drive away all but the hardiest adventurers from some of the world's tallest and most pristine peaks.
A tour company present during the attack said gunmen dressed as police ordered the tourists out of tents at the 13,860-foot base camp of Nanga Parbat, the country's second highest peak, late on Saturday night, then shot them and a Pakistani guide.
Responsibility for the attack on the peak, which is more than 8,000 meters (26,400 feet), in the western Himalayas has been claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and a smaller radical Islamist group.

The foreign victims were two citizens from China, one from Lithuania, one from Nepal, two from Slovakia, three Ukrainians, and one person with joint U.S.-Chinese citizenship.
Manzoor Hussain, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said at least 40 foreigners including citizens from Serbia, Italy, Ireland, Denmark and the United States, among several other nationalities, were evacuated from a higher camp.
A group of Romanians is believed to be scaling the mountain from another side. Some other groups booked for climbs this summer have already canceled, one company said.
Hussain said the attack was a "fatal blow" for his efforts to attract more climbers to the Hindu Khush, Karakoram and western Himalayan ranges, home to many unexplored summits.
"We are still in shock. We've had to apologize to so many mountaineers across the world," said Hussain, who described the attack as appalling and said he was devastated.
Geographically, Pakistan is a climbers' paradise. It rivals Nepal for the number of peaks more than 7,000 meters and is home to the world's second tallest mountain, K2, and three more that are among the world's 14 summits higher than 8,000 meters.
In more peaceful times, northern Pakistan's unspoiled beauty would be a major tourist draw, bringing sorely needed dollars to a nation that suffers repeated balance of payments crises.
Mountaineers, many from China, Russia and Eastern Europe, are among the last foreigners who regularly visit Pakistan for leisure. Tourism has been devastated since 2007 by militant attacks and fighting between the Taliban and the army in once popular tribal valleys such as Swat in the northwest.
The number of expeditions had also dwindled, but before the attack some 50 groups were expected this year in the remote Gilgit-Baltistan region, a stopover on the historic Silk Road.
That has changed following Sunday's massacre, which sparked protests on Monday in Chilas, the closest town to the base camp, which depends on climbing for income in the summer.
"I haven't slept since yesterday. It's a very sad situation," said Ghulam Muhammed, whose company Blue Sky Treks and Tours guided five of the climbers killed at the base camp.
Blue Sky is based in the town of Skardu, which is heavily reliant on the income brought by outsiders.
"I am very worried. Now business is finished, today two or three have canceled. It is difficult now," said Muhammed, who was in the capital Islamabad to speak to embassies and family members of the victims. "In Gilgit-Baltistan, a lot of the economy is from tourism — the money goes to transporters, hotels, markets, porters guides and cooks."

HIPPIE TRAIL
In reality, the tourist industry last thrived in the 1970s, when the "hippie trail" brought Western travelers through the apricot and walnut orchards of the Swat Valley and Kashmir on their way to India and Nepal.
Years of war in Afghanistan helped end the overland route to Asia, and Pakistan's tourism never really recovered.
While the attack on foreign climbers was a first, it did not come entirely out of the blue. Gilgit-Baltistan's Shi'ite Muslim population has suffered a number of sectarian killings by radical Sunni groups over the past year, including one that claimed responsibility for killing the climbers.
"We have been warning the government," Hussain said. "Security was beefed up, and there were checks on the road, but we wanted security parties for the mountaineers as well."
The Pakistan Taliban later said it had carried out the attack, in retaliation for the death of its second in command in a U.S. drone strike in May. Since then, Pakistan's new government has been tested by a succession of major attacks on targets ranging from female students to a funeral procession.
Gilgit-Baltistan is part of the disputed region of Kashmir. It is connected to China by a highway crossing the Karakoram range, home to K2. The attack was acutely embarrassing for Pakistan, which nurtures a close friendship with China in a drawn-out struggle with India over territory.
In 1995, a group of foreign tourists was kidnapped in the part of Kashmir administered by India. One escaped, one was beheaded, and four have never been found.