Rahmatullah Nikzad, who was head of Ghazni Journalists’ Union and had worked for The Associated Press as well as Al Jazeera TV channel, was gunned down in Ghazni city on December 21, with Afghan authorities long been criticized for their failure to track down the perpetrators and hold them to account.
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency—the National Directorate of Security—announced in a statement Thursday its forces have arrested Hameedullah and Abdul Habib who were among 5,000 Taliban prisoners released by the Afghan government.
The suspects arrested had recently joined a Taliban group led by Obaidullah, who was said to be responsible for targeted killings in Ghazni province.
The suspects behind Nikzad’s assassination had also killed a local judge and two employees of provincial state accountant in the southern Ghazni.
According to the statement, the suspects had confessed to their crimes.
Officials in the National Directorate of Security pointed the blame at Taliban, but the group has yet to comment.
They had earlier denied involvement in the killing, calling it a “loss for the country”.
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