Kabul: Local officials in Nuristan province said that about 100 people have been killed in floods in Kamdish district of the province.
Zaheda Faizan, the deputy governor of Nuristan, told the Subhe Kabul daily that the floods started in the village of Mirdish in Kamdish district on Wednesday. According to her, more than 300 houses were destroyed and about 100 people were killed as a result of the flood in this area.
Faizan said that so far, the bodies of more than 40 people have been found. On the other hand, Saeedullah Nuristani, the head of Nuristan Provincial Council, said that at least 80 houses were completely destroyed and more than 150 people are missing as a result of floods in Kamdish district of the province. According to him, the bodies of more than 40 people have been found so far.
Meanwhile, in other news, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Afghanistan affiliates, the Afghanistan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA) and the Afghanistan’s National Journalists Union (ANJU) urged the authorities to release journalists detained by the NDS immediately.
Four Afghan journalists, Bismillah Watandoost, Qudrat Soltani, Mujib Obaidi, and Sanaullah Siam were arrested by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) on July 26 following their reporting trip to Spin Boldak, a district captured by the Taliban earlier this month.
The AIJA said, “The AIJA considers the detention of these journalists by the security agencies being against the law of mass media and calls on the security agencies to release the journalists as soon as possible and to pursue this issue through the Media Complaints and Violations Commission.” The ANJU said, “We are concerned about the journalists being arrested last week by (the) government for their news-reporting.” The IFJ said, “The arrest of journalists for merely attempting to investigate the government’s claim is a breach of the spirit of free and independent media. We urge the authorities to release all four media workers immediately.”
