BBC journalists narrowly escaped injury from an exploding landmine in eastern Afghanistan last week, proving that the political situation in the country remains as volatile and opaque as ever.
A convoy of four vehicles, including a BBC3 documentary crew travelling back to Jalalabad with footage after filming in Tora Bora, passed by the landmine just minutes before it detonated. No one was hurt.
According to a BBC source who contacted the documentary team and the BBC’s Kabul bureau, there was no indication that the crew had been specifically targeted, because the vehicles were not marked as BBC property.
However, it is understood that the Afghan security chief in the region is investigating this as a possibility.
According to reports, Afghan police arrested nine men in connection with the blast, which occurred about nine miles outside Tora Bora, the mountainous region deluged by heavy bombing during December 2001.
It remains unclear whether the landmine was detonated via remote control.
By Wale Azeez
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