Afghan reporter tortured, killed, dumped in sack in the southern province of Helmand 

Noor Ahmad Noori had been a radio host for local broadcast in Afghanistan. He had formerly worked as a translator for The New York Times.

BY DEBORAH HASTINGS / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

© OMAR SOBHANI / REUTERS/REUTERS

It has been a bloody month in Afghanistan. A policeman, seen here, walks past suicide bomb debris in the capital of Kabul on Jan. 12. On Friday, the tortured body of an Afghan journalist was discovered in southern Helmand.

An Afghan journalist was tortured and murdered in the tumultuous Helmand province, Reporters Without Borders announced Friday.

The bloodied body of Noor Ahmad Noori, 26, was found in a sack Thursday in the suburb of Lashkar Gah. He had been tortured before being killed, the journalism watchdog organization said in a statement.

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A hospital doctor said Noori had been severely beaten and stabbed in the head.

The young journalist was a well-known radio reporter for local broadcaster Radio Bost, and had worked as a translator for The New York Times from 2010 to 2013.

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"We are looking into what happened. Our deepest sympathies go out" to his family, New York Times Co. Communications Director Danielle Rhoades Ha told the Daily News in an email.

In a news story, The New York Times quoted a spokesman for the governor of Helmand Province as saying "the police found the body wrapped in a sack and dumped north of Lashkar Gah."

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The Taliban has a strong presence in Helmand and the area is considered dangerous for journalists. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the reporter's killing.

"He had not been threatened or at least not recently," Radio Bost manager Abdul Salam Zahid told Reporters Without Borders. "He was a decent person and his programs caused no problems. His voice was known to everyone throughout the province."

But family members said he had recently received threatening phone calls.

Noori had hosted daily and weekly religious programs.

BBC reporter Abdul Samad Rohani was shot to death in Helmand in 2008. In 2007, two local journalists working for an Italian reporter were killed by the Taliban, according to Reporters Without Borders
.