Ibrahim Parhar, the head of a local radio station in Farah province, on Saturday claimed Farah police beat him up.

Parhar said the incident happened on Friday night when he was on his way to the radio station to read the news.

He said police stopped him and started hitting him with their AK-47s.

Parhar claimed that he lost consciousness during the assault. Once the police had finished, they took him to PD2 police station where they kept him in detention for a few hours.

However, Toryalai Abdiyani, Farah police chief, said he was unaware of the incident but that it would be investigated. He said if the police officers involved are found guilty they will be prosecuted.

This comes just days after NAI – supporting open media in Afghanistan – released its annual report which found over 400 cases of violence had been recorded this year against journalists and media workers in the country.

This was a sharp increase against the 95 recorded last year.