16 journalists killed 47 injured in Pakistan during the
eleven months of 2011
The security of the media persons remained a big question
during the eleven months of 2011 and no proper steps have been taken to provide
security by the authorities and even by the media houses. The attitude of the
media houses was more indifferent towards the safety and security of
journalists as compare with the authorities. The journalists who are involved
in their professional duties in the conflict areas are more vulnerable and
exposed before the law enforcement agencies, militant groups and other non
state actors. The majority of the journalists are under paid or allowed to use
only ID cards of the channels they work for and have to arrange their own
earnings.
During the eleven months of 2011, journalists have faced the
more insecurity and intolerance when compared with previous years. Indeed,
there is no change from the military dictatorships of the past. 16 journalists
were killed, among them five journalists were abducted by the state
intelligence agencies, kept incommunicado in different torture cells, tortured
and their bullet ridden bodies were dumped on the road side. Five journalists
were killed in bomb blasts while performing their professional duties, six
journalists were killed in target killings. One journalist remains missing
after abduction by plain clothed persons.
The Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) claims in its
press release published by Express Tribune on June 11, 2011, that 10
journalists were killed in Balochistan this year and no investigation has been
carried out. The BUJ has not provided a list of the names of those killed.
In different attacks on journalists and media houses 35
working journalists, 10 camera men, one photographer, two drivers and one
satellite engineer of print media and television channels were injured during
the attacks, thrashed by officials and beaten by different groups. Three television channels were attacked, one
was attacked on two occasions, and one FM radio station was also attacked. Two
television channels were banned to stop their broadcasts.
Bullet riddled bodies of missing journalists were found who
were allegedly abducted by state agencies
Saleem Shahzad, Pakistan Bureau Chief of the Asia Times
Online, an online news agency based in Hong Kong, was going to a private
television channel at a talk show in the programme, on the issue of the
terrorist attack on PNS Mehran Naval base Karachi. On Sunday, 29 May 2011, he
left home at 5.30 in the evening to join the TV talk show but did not reach the
station. His whereabouts remained unknown for two days and on May 31, 2011 his
dead body was found which was bearing torture marks. His body was found 200
kilometers away from his house. He was abducted from Islamabad, the capital of
Pakistan and remains under the tight surveillance of state intelligence
agencies. This is one more of the mysterious abductions and extrajudicial
killings that have been taking place in Pakistan on a regular basis.
He was continuously receiving death threats from the
intelligence agencies for breaking the news that there were Jihadis from banned
militant organizations in the Pakistan Navy and they were well protect over there.
The US has also confirmed the involvement of Pakistani notorious intelligence
agency, the ISI, in his abduction and extra judicial killing.
Javed Naseer Rind’s name was added to the list of more than
10 journalists whose bodies have been found tortured and dumped in Balochistan
province. Rind was 26 years old and working as sub editor with local Daily
Tawar, a pro nationalist newspaper and he was abducted by plain clothed persons
on September 10. Family members claim that he was abducted by the spies from
intelligence agency and police have refused to file the first information
report (FIR). Rind’s bullet-riddled body was found dumped in Khuzdar, about 300
kilometers south of Quetta, on November 5. The victim was shot in the head and
the bullet had passed through the skull. The body bore multiple marks of brutal
torture, doctors at the District Headquarters Hospital, Khuzdar said.
Zareef Faraz: The bullet riddled body of Zareef Faraz,a poet
and editor of quarterly literary magazine, the Shabjoo, was found on April 25,
2011 from Turbat. According to the media reports, Zareef was abducted one week
before his killing and he was abducted when he was going in a passenger bus by
uniform and plain clothe persons. Sami Ahmed’s body was also found with the
body of Zareef, he was from Tump sub district of province.
Siddique Edio's bullet riddled body was on April 28. He was
Human rights defender and journalist.
Siddique Eido and his colleague, Yousaf Nazar Baloch, also met a grisly
fate, they were abducted by FC and police on December 21. They were seized by
the paramilitary Frontier Corps and dragged into a van. Police who tried to
protect them were severely beaten. Eido and Baloch were taken to an unknown
location. Their bloodied, battered bodies were discovered on 28 April from
Makran.
Rehmatullah Shaheen was a journalist and a poet, his
bullet-riddled body was recovered from Quetta on February 2. Family members of
the victim said the government agencies were responsible for the killing of
Rehmatullah Shaheen who was abduct at the start of New Year. Hospital sources
said the victim was shot in the head that resulted into instant death as the
body was also bearing some torture marks.
Journalists killed in target killings
Nasrullah Khan Afridi, a senior tribal journalist, died in
May 2011 when his car blew up by a powerful bomb which was detonated remotely
in his car at Khyber Super Market, Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pkhtunkha
province. Nasrullah had just boarded his car after returning from a shop near Lala
Hotel in Khyber Super Market after faxing news to his media organisation when
the bomb went off with a deafening sound around 9:15 p.m. The car was destroyed
in the explosion.
Faisal Quereshi, 28, editor for the political news website
London Post, was murdered at his resident. His body was discovered on October
7, 2011, about 2 a.m. by his brother, Zahid, after family members found
bloodstains outside the journalist's house. Police reports described the body
as showing signs of torture, with the throat slit.
Another brother, Shahid, who lives in London, told that the
killers had taken the journalist's laptop and telephone. Shahid Qureshi, who
also wrote for the London Postwebsite, told that he and his brother had
received death threats from men who claimed they were from the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM) political party. The London Post had run a series of stories on
MQM leader Altaf Hussain, describing his alleged flight to South Africa from
England, where he was living in self-imposed exile.
The website is widely recognized as anti-MQM. MQM is
Pakistan's third-largest political party, and is considered the country's
largest secular political party, with Karachi and the Sindh region as its power
base.
Munir Shakir was working for a Balochi language channel,
'Sabaz Baat', and for the "Online" news agency. He was shot dead by
armed men in Khuzdar town, Balochistan, on August 5. "Munir Shakir was on
his way home after purchasing some household items from a market when some
armed men riding a motorcycle opened fire on him," Sources said that Mr
Shakir was hit by more than two bullets and died on the spot. He is the fourth
journalist to be gunned down in Khuzdar this year.
Wali Khan Babar, 29, reporter of Geo News, Pakistan's
largest private television news channel was gunned down by unidentified armed
men in Karachi on January 13, 2011. Babar received five bullets -- two in
forehead, one in jaw and two in neck. He was killed shortly after covering
operation against drug-traffickers in Pehalwan Goth area in Karachi.
Babar was returning home from office after performing his professional
responsibilities, when two assailants on motorcycle intercepted his car at 9:21
pm and shot him five times through driver’s window from close range.
Eyewitnesses told journalists that Babar’s car was stopped by attackers who,
after making identification, shot him dead It was blamed by the former Sindh
minister of interior affairs that Baber was killed by the gangsters of Muteha
Quami MovementBabar leaves behind a widow mother, three sisters and four
brothers.
Naveed Kamal, 26, was attacked by unidentified men on the
night of April 20 at Abul Hasan Isphahani road, Karachi, capital of Sindh
province. He was shot in the neck and is in the Intensive Care Unit at the Aga
Khan Hospital. Kamal was the news reporter with Metro One TV channel. No
attacker has been arrested.
Ayaz, 32, chief editor of a weekly newspaper, was shot dead
in North Karachi in the Sir Syed police limits. On June 12 at afternoon,
someone had asked him by telephone to get to the place near a fast food
restaurant. According to the eyewitnesses, Ayaz was standing at the place when
two people in a car arrived and started talking to Ayaz. In the meantime, the
suspects took Ayaz some distance away from the fast food restaurant, opened
fire on him and fled. No one has been arrested in killing.
Zaman Ibrahim, 40, a newspaper’s crime reporter, was shot
dead on Sheedi Village Road in Lyari, Karachi on March 3, 2011. Ibrahim was
going on his motorcycle when two motorcyclists followed and shot him in the
head. The victim was accused by the police a the member defunct Peoples Amn
Committee (peace committee) Ibrahim was father of two children. He worked for
different newspapers for the last five years.
Journalist killed in bomb blasts
Asfandyar Khan, a reporter for the newspaper
Akhbar-e-Khyber, died in a double bombing that took the lives of more than
three dozen people on June 11, 2011. The first, small blast went off at a
market, drawing a large crowd, including journalists such as Khan who were
covering the story. A second, larger explosion, apparently a suicide bomb, went
off after a crowd had grown.
Abid Naveed, the local journalist working with a newspaper,
was also died in the same blast of June 11, wherein seven other journalists
were injured. At least 34 people were
killed and over 90 injured, among them two other television journalists and a
senior police officer.
Shafiullah, a trainee journalist of an English daily
newspaper, who was injured in the twin explosions in Peshawar’s Khyber
Supermarket, on June 11, succumbed to his injuries on June 15.
Nasrullah Khan Afridi, a senior tribal journalist, died in
May 2011 when his car was blown up by a powerful bomb which was detonated by
remote control at Khyber Super Market, Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pkhtunkha
province. Nasrullah had just boarded his car after returning from a shop near
Lala Hotel in Khyber Super Market after faxing news to his media organisation
when the bomb went off with a deafening sound around 9:15 p.m. The car was
destroyed in the explosion.
A senior journalist is abducted
A group of armed men with covered faces kidnapped senior
tribal journalist Rahmatullah Darpakhel from Miramshah, North Waziristan, on
August 7, 2011.
He was associated with an Urdu daily Ausaf. Rahmatullah was
shopping in the bazaar when a group of armed men bundled him into a car and
drove away. He was careful while writing about issues and incidents taking
place in the volatile North Waziristan. He had reportedly refused to work with
the foreign media due to the dangers associated with journalistic assignments
in the militancy-hit tribal region. The News reported on August 8, that the
tribal sources said a mysterious group, Khurasan, which is considered as an
intelligence wing of the Taliban, was said to be behind such kidnappings and
murder of the tribesmen in North Waziristan. Local Taliban led by Hafiz Gul
Bahadur denied involvement in Rahmatullah’s kidnapping and denounced the
incident. Their spokesman Ahmadullah Ahmadi said they had launched efforts for
safe recovery of the journalist.
The list of injured journalists who were attacked, thrashed
and arrested would be followed by a separate report.
The killing, abduction, disappearances, attacks on
journalists and media houses are in gross violations of the constitution of
Pakistan and international norms.
Article 19 of the constitution of Pakistan guarantees that
every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and
there shall be freedom of press.
The Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, to which Pakistan is the signatory, declares that everyone has the
right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
The Article 19 of International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which was ratified by the Pakistan, calls on the governments
that; 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall
include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds,
regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of
art, or through any other media of his choice.
We urge the authorities to stop the impunity to the
perpetrators who are involved in the killings, abduction and disappearances of
the journalists, attacks on journalists and media houses. The non committal and
indifferent attitude of the governments towards the killings of the journalists
has provided encouragement to the powerful group to unleash against the
journalists to suppress the freedom of expression and freedom of media. The
killings of the journalists and continuous attacks on them shows that policy of
the civilian government towards the freedom of media and expression is no more
different from the military rule and it may be called as the extension of the
policy of military dictators.
The
perpetrators, including the officials of the state intelligence agencies and
law enforcement authorities involved in, must be prosecuted. 