A bomber blew up a bus carrying employees of Afghanistan's largest media organization on Wednesday, leaving seven people dead and 26 others wounded. The dead included five men and two women, Kabul's police chief said.
Six of those killed were staffers of the Moby Group, a privately-owned media and entertainment company that has been threatened by the Taliban in the past. No one has taken responsibility for the bombing.
Hours after the blast, however, a news anchor at Tolo TV, Afghanistan's most popular television station and a division of the company, addressed the unidentified assailants and said, "You cannot silence our voice."
Anchor at @TOLOnews strikes defiant tone after today's attack: "You cannot silence our voice."— Ahmad Shuja احمدشجاع (@AhmadShuja) January 20, 2016
"We condemn these terrorist attacks that kill innocent Afghans," the station added in a statement, adding that they were waiting for an update from the government for more the details about the attack.
Afghani President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack "in the strongest possible words."
Kabul police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahimi said that the attackers had driven a car packed with explosives into the minibus, causing the explosion. Tolo TV said that the employees killed had been on their way home from the company's office in central Kabul at the time of the attack, which occurred near the Russian embassy.
#Break: Russia embassy is just 100M away from the palce where explosion happened. Red lights are beside Emb's wall pic.twitter.com/PAwbj5Xijf— Mahmoud Mobaarez (@MahmoudMobaarez) January 20, 2016
Rajab Noorzayi said his daughter Zeinab was on the bus but he hasn't been able to locate her. "I'm looking for her but the police say everyone has been taken to hospital," he said.
Shocked & very saddened by today's attack on my former colleagues at @TOLOnews. Rest their soul in peace & speedy recovery for injured ones.— Farzad Lami (@FarzadLameh) January 20, 2016
The Taliban have threatened media organizations in the past and in October directly threatened Tolo TV, and another popular station, 1TV, for what they said was unfavorable reporting.
The insurgents claimed that the stations had broadcast reports about their activities during a siege of the northern city of Kunduz that were inaccurate. They threatened unspecified consequences.
Additional information from the Associated Press.