MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES
- Two Afghan journalists said they were brutally beaten by Taliban fighters on Wednesday.
- The duo was detained after covering women's rights protests in Kabul.
- Multiple journalists across different news outlets have been detained this week by the Taliban.
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Journalists working for Afghanistan's Etilaatroz newspaper said they were detained by Taliban fighters and brutally beaten after covering demonstrations in Kabul.
Photographer Nematullah Naqdi and reporter Taqi Daryabi were covering women's rights protests on Wednesday when they were arrested and taken to a police station in the country's capital city, the BBC reported.
The duo was beaten by electric cables, whips, and batons before being released without explanation, the report said.
"One of the Taliban put his foot on my head, crushed my face against the concrete. They kicked me in the head … I thought they were going to kill me," Naqdi told AFP.
"You are lucky you weren't beheaded," one fighter said to Naqdi when he asked why he was being beaten, the report said.
Daryabi told AFP the duo was in so much pain that they couldn't move and when they were eventually released without explaination, the militant group called them a handful of insults.
The duo lost consciousness at least four times during the beatings, the Telegraph reported.
Both Naqdi and Daryabi were treated at a hospital for injuries to their backs and faces, the Independent reported.
According to AFP, Naqdi said Taliban fighters arrested people who were using phones to film the demonstrations. The BBC said its journalists, among others, were prevented from filming in Kabul on Wednesday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a US-based non-governmental organization that promotes global press freedom, issued a statement on Wednesday calling on the Taliban to stop arresting journalists and to let them work freely without fear of reprisal.
"The Taliban is quickly proving that earlier promises to allow Afghanistan's independent media to continue operating freely and safely are worthless," Steven Butler, CPJ's Asia program coordinator, said in the statement. "We urge the Taliban to live up to those earlier promises, to stop beating and detaining reporters doing their job, and allow the media to work freely without fear of reprisal."
Earlier in the week, 14 journalists covering protests in Kabul were detained and later released by the Taliban, the organization said, and at least six of them were subject to violence.