The protest took place outside a police station and Naqdi and Daryabi said they were taken inside the station and were severely beaten.
“I was hit with extreme force that I really thought that was the end of my life,” Naqdi told CNN on Friday. “I was hit in the arm with extreme force that I have not been able to move for the last two days … it has improved. My left eye has become serious because it is still red and I am worried, the left l ‘ear can’t get any hearing. It has a noise. I was hit four or five times very hard in the face. “
“They stepped on my head on the other side and pressed my foot on my head, I had my face on the mosaic floor and I was trying to stretch because of the pain and tell them to hit me on all sides and not just he hit me on the back. For that reason, his face was bloodied, “Naqdi said.
“They used so much violence that one grabbed me by the head and face and another grabbed me by the waist. My hands and feet were tied and one of them was pushing my legs like a slingshot. I had the feeling that my my neck can break or my back can break, ”Naqdi added.
“When Taliban forces arrested us and took us to the police station, they continuously tortured me for about 10 minutes even though I was not in the state to remember the exact time. They beat me with everything they could. grab, ”Daryabi said. .
“It is possible that from now on the Taliban will threaten and torture journalists. The continuation of their activities will be considered a danger to their government,” Daryabi added.
“At a press conference they told reporters that they would be given permission to continue their activities, but only according to Islamic norms. I think these threats are still present. Journalists will not stop, they are a different sector of society, and they are people who transmit the voice of the people, ”Daryabi added. “They become the voice of the people.”
CNN has contacted the Taliban, but has not received any comments at the time of writing.
Zaki Daryabi, editor-in-chief of EtilaatRoz, told CNN that he hoped that “in the first step, the Taliban leadership would respond to this continued and brutal torture of our colleagues; in police district three, they would subdue them [legal] processing “.
“Secondly, we expected the Afghan and international media not to present this as an attack on EtilaatRoz [daily]; presenting is like an attack on all media and a discussion on freedom of expression, ”Zaki Daryabi added.
Nemat Naqdi and Taqi Daryabi were among at least 14 journalists detained for two days while covering protests in Kabul, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). At least six of the journalists “were subjected to violence during their arrests or detentions,” according to the CPJ.
“The Taliban must immediately stop the detention of journalists in Afghanistan, end the use of violence against them and allow the media to operate freely and without fear of reprisals,” the CPJ said in a statement.
The protests took place in the Dasht-i-Barchi area of Kabul, inhabited mostly by people of the Shiite minority Shiite ethnic group known to the Taliban in the past.