'Help me rescue Afghan writers in hiding from Taliban' top TV producer tells ministers

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been urged to meet with campaigners - including the producer of Have I Got News For You - hoping to rescue Afghan writers and comedians at risk of being murdered by the Taliban.

Jimmy Mulville, the executive producer of the long-running satirical panel told the Sunday Mirror around 104 "high risk" artists, writers and comedians are in hiding with their families, fearing imprisonment or murder for speaking out against the Taliban.

"They recently found a comedian in hiding, who had made jokes about the Taliban before they returned to power," Mr Mulville said.

"They found him, made him tell the joke and killed him." He said he'd also been told an actor who had discovered the Taliban had found out where she lived, "threw herself out of a window."

Mr Mulville, along with film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, are calling on the government to help around 294 creative professionals and their families to escape Afghanistan via Pakistan.

After meeting with a number of politicians and giving evidence to a Parliamentary select committee last year, they feel the next step is to discuss the matter with Mr Lammy.

READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster

Mr Mulville said: "I think it's a real opportunity for David Lammy, who is showing himself as quite a player on the international stage, to do the right thing and get these people out of Afghanistan as soon as possible."

He went on: "This is 294 people who would be completely assimilated. They aren't going to take anyone's job, they have a job.

“As creative people, they just need not to be killed. It needs someone like Keir Starmer to step in and say it's not about immigration, it's a rescue.

“As we're speaking, there could be people being hunted down by the Taliban."