Balochistan journalist arrested for criticising state institutions

QUETTA: The Federal Investigation Agency on Thursday arrested a reporter of a Quetta daily for allegedly criticising national institutions on social media.

Confirming the development, FIA officials said Zafarullah Achakzai, who reports for the Qudrat daily newspaper, was taken into custody under Prevention of Cyber Act 2016. He was produced in the court of judicial Magistrate after his arrest. The court allowed FIA to remand Zafarullah for six days.

Sources in Zafarullah’s family told a joint meeting of the Balochistan Union of Journalists and other representative bodies of newspapers editors and workers that the report was arrested from his residence a day before Eidul Fitr.



“The entire area was blocked by security forces personnel before my son was arrested,” said Zafarullah’s father Naimatullah Achakzai who is also Qudrat’s editor-in-chief.

Meanwhile, the joint meeting of BUJ and other newspapers bodies expressed serious concern over Zafarullah’s arrest. The said concerned authorities should have contacted the proper journalists’ body if there was any complaint against Zafarullah.

The meeting also said that any journalist suspecting of violating the law should be produced before a court of law.