Aziz Ullah Haidari (20 August 1968 in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

– 19 November 2001 in Nangarhar Province

Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...

Journalists Killed - Afghanistan: Azizullah Haidari, Reuters
) was a Reuter's

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

and

photo-journalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. On 19 November 2001, he, along with three other journalists, were

kidnap In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

ped and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

ed by the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

on the highway of Sarobi area situated between

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. Aziz Ullah Haidari, who was an intelligent and experienced journalist, had obtained employment with

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Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

and continued with the organization before being murdered by the Taliban in 2001.

Biography

Aziz Ullah Haidari was born on 20 August 1968 in Kabul, Afghanistan. His father, Hajji Qurban Haidari, owned a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

in Afghanistan. Aziz had four brothers and two sisters. During the Soviet invasion, at the age of twelve, he, along with his family, had fled to Pakistan. During travel, they, like many other refugees, had faced many troubles and difficulties including being looted by robbers during the journey. After Immigration they settled in Hayatabad area of Peshawar city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. His elder brother also martyred, Jalil Haidari, who was a boxer and gold medalist. In

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

he continued his study and was admitted to an English medium school. After completing his

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

, Aziz then enrolled in Preston University, Peshawar. After completing his degree, he moved to

with his parents. He fell in love with a Pakistani girl, Saadia Sehar, a video-journalistLa ONU confirma que los asesinos de los periodistas son talibanes.
''

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'', 22 November 2001. and

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and married her on 28 January 1996 in Islamabad.

Work

Aziz Ullah Haidari started his career as an assistant director of Foreign Relation of Mehracollah reconstruction services (NGO) for Afghanistan in 1990. He started teaching the English Language in a

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English medium school National Academy in 1991. He started work as a journalist in 1987 with Pashto and Persian media. In 1990 he joined

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency may ...

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

and monitoring news from Afghanistan. He was promoted as a correspondent in Reuters in 1992. He was also a

photo journalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

and did many exclusive works for Reuters. Julio Fuentes of

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's '' El Mundo''; Harry Burton, an Australian television cameraman and Maria Grazia Cutuli, a reporter with

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's ''

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...

'', were all killed when gunmen ambushed the convoy they were traveling in between

and Kabul on 19 November 2001.

Family

He has a daughter named Aleena Haidari and a son named Muhammad Ammad Haidari. His wife is named Saadia Sehar Haidari. After Aziz's death, she started work as a journalist and

cameraperson ''Cameraperson'' is a 2016 autobiographical collage documentary film. The film is an account by director Kirsten Johnson about her life and career as a cinematographer. It relies on footage shot by Johnson across the years in numerous differen ...

Death

Aziz Ullah Haidari moved to Afghanistan from Pakistan to cover the ongoing conflict there, working for Reuters at the time. On November of that year, he was riding in a

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

from Jalalabad to Kabul, the cars were yellow and white. Just a few days after the Taliban fell, his convoy was ordered to stop and their passengers ordered to get out by a steep valley of barren hills leading up into the highlands that surround Kabul. He was murdered with three other journalists, Julio Fuentes, Harry Burton and Maria Grazia Cutulli. Their mutilated bodies were found on 20 November 2001. Aziz Ullah Haidari was buried in H-8 Graveyard Islamabad on 22 November 2001.

Murder trial

A Kabul court sentenced three men to death for the murders in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Two brothers, Mahmood Zar Jan and Abdul Wahid, were sentenced in 2005 and Mahmood Zar Jan, the suspected head of the gang that killed four journalists in November 2001. He was arrested together with four accomplices on the evening of 4 June after a shootout with police in which he sustained gunshot injuries. The arrest took place in Sorbi (50 km east of Kabul) not far from where the journalist Aziz Ullah Haidari, Maria Grazia Cutuli, Harry Burton and Julio Fuentes were murdered four years ago. He was transferred to Kabul. Zar Jan is alleged to have been the main person to give the order for the journalists to be slain.

Reza Khan , , spouse = Maryam Savadkoohi Tadj ol-Molouk Ayromlu (queen consort)Turan AmirsoleimaniEsmat Dowlatshahi , issue = Princess Hamdamsaltaneh Princess ShamsMohammad Reza Shah Princess Ashraf Prince Ali Reza Prince Gholam Reza Prin ...

, a member of the gang, was convicted of participating in the murders and sentenced to death on 20 November 2004.Afghan Confesses Part in Death of Azizullah Haidari
, ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'', 5 August 2004

References