Families, friends and colleagues of TOLOnews journalist Samim Faramarz attended his burial ceremony in Kabul on Thursday.

Faramarz and TOLOnews cameraman Ramiz Ahmadi were killed while covering an explosion in Kabul on Wednesday night. While filming the scene of the blast, a secondary bomb was detonated, killing both instantly. 

Speaking at his burial ceremony, Faramarz’s former school teacher spoke about his love for books and writing. 

“Samim was a polite student. He used to study hard and read lots of books in order to develop his (writing) talent,” said Emra Olgun.

One local journalist, and friend, said Faramarz’s death was a great loss. 

“The death of Samim is a big loss to the media family in Afghanistan,” said Sayed Husain Sadat, a journalist.

Devastated over their loss, his friends said they cannot believe that Faramarz is no longer with them. 

“I don’t think that we have a government,” Samim’s friend Shafiq said.

“Government of Afghanistan is sleeping, the president (Ashraf Ghani) is sleeping, security forces are sleeping. There is no measure to ensure the safety of journalists,” said Sediq Tawhidi, a member of the committee to ensure the safety of journalists.

Faramarz, 28, had worked for TOLOnews for three years, and his quirky character came through in many of his reports. 

A seasoned conflict journalist, Faramarz had covered many war-related stories, including suicide bombings but his passion lay in covering positive stories – stories that would bring hope to the young generation.

He was from Kabul and graduated from the Afghan-Turk high school in 2009. He then went on to university in Kazakhstan. Fluent in five languages, Faramarz made an impact on everyone he met. 

“No one was a peace lover like him. I have not seen anyone who was so anti-violent as Samim was. But he became a victim of violence. Samim worked honestly and ethically and he was popular for this, for working with love and sincerity,” said Shabeer Ahmadi, Samim’s colleague and close friend.

“He was a good influence. I learned a lot from his work and reports,” said Abdullah Hamim, TOLOnews reporter in Helmand.

Music, cinema, and sports were also his passions and every minute of his day, Samim looked on the bright side. 

He recently returned to Kabul, after a six-month deployment to Herat province, where he made many new friends. 

In Herat, he worked on a documentary on the TAPI gas pipeline project.

“It was a month ago when I was in Wazir Akbar Khan in Kabul to make a report on the peace convoy. I saw him (Faramarz) there,” said Zainuddin Stanekzai, head of the reporters union in Helmand.

Just last year, Faramarz worked on a documentary about Myanmar refugees.

His last report was on insecurity and Taliban threats in Khak-e-Jabar district in Kabul province. But before he could finish it, he lost his life. 

Samim loved nature and animals, and had two cats of his own. Recently he asked a colleague to make sure his cats were taken care of if something happened to him.