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QUETTA: Another journalist was killed during an alleged armed robbery bid in the Bank Colony area of Quetta, police officials said on Sunday.
According to police, the journalist, Abdul Wahid Raisani, was going home from his office the robbers intercepted him and tried to snatch his motorcycle near Qambrani Road. During the ensuing struggle, the robbers fired shot, as a result, he sustained bullet injuries in his chest.
Soon after the incident, police shifted him to the hospital however he succumbed to his injuries during the treatment, according to police. Further investigation is ongoing, they said.
Meanwhile, the Balochistan Union of Journalists strongly condemned the incident and demanded the immediate arrest of those responsible for Raisani’s death.
On April 20, senior journalist and former chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Authority (Pemra), Absar Alam was shot and injured in Islamabad.
In a video shared by journalist Asad Toor, Alam could be heard saying he was shot at while walking outside his home. “I’ve been hit in my ribs,” he said, adding that he had not lost hope.
Earlier this month, a local journalist, Waseem Alam, was shot dead by unidentified persons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak.
According to the FIR, registered on behalf of the victim’s mother, Alam was returning home on his motorcycle when he was targeted near the Batani Khel Government School. He was subsequently rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
KP Chief Minister Mehmood khan condemned that journalist’s killing and directed the police to arrest the perpetrators at the earliest. Pakistan is considered one of the most dangerous places for journalists, with 70 having been killed in the country in the last two decades, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
According to the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) Media Freedom Report 2020, 10 journalists were murdered and several others threatened, kidnapped, tortured and arrested on trumped-up charges while discharging their professional responsibilities last year alone.
“No action has so far been taken against those responsible for killing journalists and it seems that such persons enjoy impunity, it said. It is a matter of serious alarm that the legal system of the country has become ineffective in shielding and providing justice to journalists,” said the report.
