Hossein Naderi, Akmal Tabian

Journalist Hossein Naderi and media trainee and journalism student Akmal Tabian were killed  in the bomb blast at a press award ceremony for media workers in northern Afghanistan. The Islamic State (IS) subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack.

The explosion occurred at an event honouring journalists working in the north of Afghanistan at the Tabyan Cultural Centre, which is also the office of the news outletAfghan Voice, located in Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh province, where media workers, local authorities, and religious figures gathered to celebrate Afghanistan’s National Journalist’s Day.

The Afghan Independent Journalists Union said that this attack is also an attack on freedom of speech and the Afghan people and calls for local authorities to follow this case seriously and identify its perpetrators.