Thursday, February 05, 2009
Mogadishu, Somalia (APA) - Said Tahlil Ahmed, the director of Horn Afrik TV and Radio who was killed on Wednesday, was buried on Thursday morning in the Moalim Nur cemeteries, about 13 kilometers south of the capital Mogadishu.
Journalists and relatives attended the funeral but media house chiefs in the capital did not attend, apparently out of fear.
At least 12 radio stations in Mogadishu, which late yesterday started airing Quranic verses to show respect for the slain journalist, completely went off air on Thursday as a sign of mourning.
The director told APA that Ahmed was shot by three young men armed with pistols “as we were going to an undisclosed location where we would have a meeting with Shabab leaders”.
“One of them shot my colleague three times in the head and when he fell down the killer shot him again in the head to make sure he was dead,” he said.
Ahmed, who was in his early 50s, was appointed chief of Horn Afrik Radio and TV after the brutal killing of former director and founder Ali Iman Sharmarke who died in a blast on August 11, 2007. A prominent Horn Afrik Radio and TV journalist Mahad Ahmed Elmi was also shot dead on that day.
Ahmed is the second Somali journalist to be killed in Somalia this year. He is survived by a wife and seven children.
Source: APA, Feb 05, 2009