Journalists across Pakistan staged protests on Tuesday to condemn the killing of a television reporter in Khuzdar.
Police said Abdul Haq Baluch, 37, who worked for ARY and was also the general secretary of the Khuzdar Press Club, was shot late Saturday while driving home.
Journalists said masked men opened fire on his car around 100 yards from the press club. Police officer Abdul Qadir Kamrani told AFP that Baloch died of his injuries en route to the hospital.
Police have registered a case against “unidentified gunmen”. Farooq Faisal, president of the National Press Club, said journalists were protesting against the extremely difficult working conditions in Balochistan.
“Armed groups are threatening journalists but the government is taking no step for their protection,” Faisal told AFP.
Nadeem Gorgnari, president of the Khuzdar Press Club, told AFP that Baloch and the club had received threatening telephone calls.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik met journalists in Islamabad and said a judicial commission would investigate the killing, promising a reward of Rs2.5 million for anyone who helps identify the killers.
FIR withdrawn
Meanwhile, Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani ordered a withdrawal of an FIR registered against journalists in the province on Tuesday. Police had registered an FIR against 26 journalists in the Civil Lines Police Station for entering the ‘red zone’ when they ended their rally in front of the Governor House and Chief Minister’s Secretariat.
The Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) took out another rally demanding that the government withdraw the FIR and arrest the killers of Abdul Haq.
(WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY OUR CORRESPONDENT)
Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2012.
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