Afghan BBC journalist abducted and murdered

A MISSING Afghan journalist working for the BBC was found shot dead yesterday.

Abdul Samad Rohani disappeared from Lashkar Gah in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday.

The BBC said his body was found yesterday afternoon. He had been shot in the head.

He was the second foreign BBC journalist to be killed over the weekend. Naftah Dahir Farah, 26, a freelancer who worked for the BBC and the Associated Press, was shot dead in Kismayo, southern Somalia, on Saturday.

Abdul Samad Rohani had worked alongside the BBC's Kabul correspondent, Alastair Leithead, and was the Helmand reporter for the Pashto service of the BBC World Service.

Jon Williams, the BBC's world news editor, said: "Rohani's courage and dedication have been a key part of the BBC's reporting from Afghanistan in recent years. His bravery – and that of his colleagues – have allowed us to tell the story for audiences in the UK, and in Afghanistan.

"His death is a terrible loss – our thoughts are with his friends and family. We are working closely with his family to support them."

There have been a number of attacks on journalists in Afghanistan this year and the Kabul-based South Asia Media Commission said five Afghan journalists were killed in 2007.