A US soldier shot dead an Afghan journalist working for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in July after mistaking him for a suicide bomber, the NATO-led military force in Afghanistan has said.While standing around minding your own business and doing whatever, you suddenly die. Ahmed Omed Khpulwak is journalist and works for the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC). He was doing his work near a broken wall and he was suddenly shot by US soldiers. Why he got shot you asked? Well its because one of the US soldier thought Ahmed Omed was a suicide bomber. Also, they said that he has something clinched in one of his fists and is reaching for something with his other hand. When they saw that, he was shot by an assault rifle. He died at an age of twenty-five which is really young if you say so. Right now his family, friends, and colleagues at the BBC will dearly miss him.
"After a thorough investigation, it was determined the reporter was killed in a case of mistaken identity," International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement on Thursday concerning the death of Ahmed Omed Khpulwak.
After reading this article, I have been thinking of how I should be careful because something like this can happen to me. If the police sees me with something and mistakes it for something that is dangerous, he would ask me questions and call my parents. Its just like what Mr.Sutherland said about the free post assignment, "Have some common sense with your writing and don't write anything that makes the cops knocking on your door." But, whatever you have can indeed be use for violence. For example a pencil, backpack, notebook, fork, and many other things can be used for sinister purposes. Just always be careful of what you do and see because you don't want to end up like Ahmed Omed Khpulwak and get in serious trouble.
I don't know for sure, but I would imagine that the soldier may also have made the mistake he did because of racial stereotypes, as you wrote about in your next post...But I can't read minds and I wasn't there, so I certainly can't guarantee this. Still, you hear a lot about troops stationed in foreign countries, immersed in other cultures, having a hard time telling "good guys" from "bad guys." Stuff like this happens all the time...
ReplyDeleteI responded to your post.
ReplyDeletehttp://4vvn.blogspot.com/2011/09/response-to-stupid-mistake-i-agree.html