Kabul : Twenty journalists and media workers were killed in violence in Afghanistan in 2017, the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC), an independent media safety group protecting the reporters’ rights, said on Friday.

Last year was the deadliest for journalists and media in the history of Afghanistan, with 67 percent increase of incidents against them compared to 2016, AJSC said in a statement on its website.

The AJSC recorded a total of 169 incidents of violence and intimidation, including killing, injury, beating, detention, threats and verbal assault of journalists and media workers, Xinhua news agency reported.

The statement said “20 journalists were killed, all by the Taliban and the Afghanistan branch of Islamic State (IS) group.

“The remarkable rise in the level of violence against journalists and media workers in Afghanistan is a matter of great concern for us and for the media community at large,” Najib Sharifi, head of AJSC, was quoted as saying.

The media support committee called on all warring groups including the Taliban and IS to refrain from attacking journalists and media workers.

At least 13 journalists were reportedly killed in 2016 in the war-torn country.

—IANS