BBC Afghanistan stringer killed in insurgent attack

Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a BBC stringer and reporter for the Pajhwok news agency in Afghanistan, has been killed during an insurgent attack on government buildings in the Uruzgan province.

Khpulwak, who was 25, was one of four killed in the attack in the province's capital city, Tirinkot. Pajhwok reports that 37 people were injured.

According to the BBC, Afghan security officials have said that buildings in the provincial governor's compound were stormed by up to six suicide bombers. Khpulwak was in the local radio and TV offices when the area came under attack.

He joined the BBC as a stringer in May 2008, going on to join the Pajhwok news agency a year later in May 2009.

Peter Horrocks, director BBC Global News, said: "The sympathies of the BBC and all of his colleagues go to Ahmed Omed's family and friends. Only this morning he was reporting on BBC Pashto about another Taliban attack that happened last night.

"The BBC and the whole world are grateful to journalists like Ahmed Omed who courageously put their lives on the line to report from dangerous places."

Afghanistan is currently 147th out of 178 in the Reporters Without Border press freedom index. According to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, three journalists were killed in the country last year, making it the 11th most dangerous country for the media.

They included Daily Mirror defence correspondent Rupert Hamer, who was killed in an explosion in January 2010 after 12 years with the newspaper.

Update, 29 July: The BBC is to hold a minute's silence today at noon in memory of Khpulwak.

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