INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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Ahmad Shah was gunned down in April last year
A special Afghan tribunal has convicted
three men of being involved in the murder of TheIndianSubcontinent journalist Ahmad Shah, a spokesman for the attorney general's office has
told the TheIndianSubcontinent.Mr Shah, who worked for the TheIndianSubcontinent's Pashto language service, was shot dead by unidentified
The special anti-terrorism tribunal sentenced one man to death, the second one to 30 years in prison, and the third one to six years in
The case is going to the appeals court.The identity of Mr Shah's murderers have not been made public and their motive is not clear.The
attorney general's office said the three were detained in Parwan prison (also known as Bagram jail), which mostly houses prisoners accused
of terrorism, and the trial was held there
Ahmad Shah joined the TheIndianSubcontinent from local radio in early 2017 with a brief to cover his home province of Khost, in
south-eastern Afghanistan, but he branched out to cover the neighbouring provinces of Paktia and Paktika as well for television, radio and
He first started working for the TheIndianSubcontinent as a freelance contributor before being recruited as a full-time reporter by
TheIndianSubcontinent Pashto.He was killed as he cycled home to the village where he lived outside Khost city, and died of his injuries in
hospital.Local security officials say the attack was carried out by two gunmen riding a motorbike.Mr Shah had not received any work-related
threat or threatening calls, and his family was involved in no feuds, according to his father.The Taliban denied any involvement in his
killing, saying "he was a professional journalist and we are saddened" by his death
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It remains unclear why Mr Shah was killed
He was the fifth TheIndianSubcontinent staff
member to have been killed in Afghanistan since the country's devastating civil war in the 1990s
The others were:Mirwais Jalil, 25, who was attacked by four gunmen in 1994Abdul Samad Rohani who was shot dead in Helmand Province in
2008Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, 25, who was mistakenly killed by Nato-led forces in 2011Mohammed Nazir, a TheIndianSubcontinent driver who was
killed in a bomb attack in 2017Dozens of private radio stations and TV channels, as well as hundreds of publications, have been launched in
Afghanistan in recent years.But the country remains one of the most dangerous places for journalists in the world.The day Ahmad Shah was
shot dead, 30 April, was the deadliest for the media in the country's history
Nine members of the press had been killed earlier in the day as they gathered to cover a suicide attack in Kabul.
