Safety: Tribal journalist receives threatening phone calls

LANDI KOTAL:

Social activist and senior journalist Ashrafuddin Pirzada said at a press conference in Landikotal on Monday that he had been receiving threatening phone calls and text messages since the past few weeks.

Pirzada said the caller, apparently a Taliban fighter, is warning him of  ‘dire consequences’ if he continued to speak up against militants and/or hide casualties caused by foreign forces in the region.

“If you publish Mujahideen casualties in drone attacks, and hide US and Afghan forces’ killings in your reports, it will not be in your favour.

It will not be tolerated if you act as the mouthpiece of foreign forces as they have occupied and killed thousands of innocent people in Afghanistan,” Pirzada said while quoting the unidentified caller. He is also receiving text messages, saying he must pay Rs5 million or else they will kill him.

The journalist fled from his house in Khyber Agency about four years ago as it was attacked with rockets.

 Also, four of his cousins were assassinated together while they were travelling in their car.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2015.