US-based newspaper The New York Times Thursday (September 9) called on the Taliban to “honor its promises to allow a free and independent press”.
Earlier, the NYT had published an opinion piece by Sirajuddin Haqqani in February 2020. The paper had introduced him as “Mr. Haqqani is the deputy leader of the Taliban”.
It did not write that he is the head of the dreaded Haqqani network and an UN-designated global terrorist since 2007. Sirajuddin Haqqani also carries a bounty of USD 10 million.
The UN says Haqqani “participated in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of Taliban, al-Qaeda, and Jaish-i-Mohammed.”
Now, multiple news reports suggest the violence unleashed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. On Thursday (September 9), photos of two Afghan journalists beaten brutally by the Taliban went viral on social media.
In its appeal, the NYT said, “We call on the Taliban to honor its promises to allow a free and independent press and urge the entire international community to work together to hold the Taliban to its commitment.”
In its opinion piece, the NYT had declared no information about his terror activities and how the FBI and the UN have defined him. It also did not give any information about his terror activities.
“But these acts of violence were done by people working for YOUR oped contributor, an internationally designated terrorist who you featured prominently and proudly on your edit pages, while your woke journalists got people sacked for an oped written by an elected US Congressman”, posted Sushant Sareen, a Senior Fellow at Delhi-based think tank ORF.
Senior journalist Kanchan Gupta posted, “Promise. Honour. Taliban. Such lofty thoughts from @nytimes as journalists get horsewhipped in #Afghanistan by followers of an exalted #NewYorkTimes opinion writer.”
