Local journalist shot dead in Afghanistan

An Afghan journalist was killed by unknown gunmen in the country's eastern province of Logar on Thursday evening, a local source said on Friday.

"On Thursday evening, Mohammad Naseer Modasir, director of local Meli Paygham radio, was shot and killed when he was travelling from office to his house in Mohammad Agha district," a provincial government source told Xinhua.

The attackers intercepted a vehicle along a main road in which Modasir was travelling, and spreed bullets on him on the roadside before fleeing the scene, the source said, adding that the authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack in the province, 60 km south of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan.

Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC), the country's union of journalists, has denounced the killing and called on the government to protect the life and properties of journalists in the militancy-hit country.

More than 50 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan over the past one and half decade, and 12 Afghan journalists had been killed this year before this case. Endit