Journalist shot dead in K-P's Tank district

Unidentified persons opened fire on Zaman Mehsud's motorbike, police say

DI KHAN: A senior journalist in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's (K-P) Tank district was shot dead on Tuesday when unidentified persons opened fire on his motorbike.

Zaman Mehsud, 40, was killed while riding his motorcycle to the Tank district in K-P, a police official confirmed to The Express Tribune.

Mehsud was shifted to District Headquarters Hospital, Tank, and later the District Headquarters and Teaching Hospital, DI Khan, where he succumbed to his injuries.



The senior journalist hailed from South Waziristan but was settled in Tank's Gomel area with his family, where he worked as a journalist at Daily Ummat. 

Meanwhile, Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"We killed him because he was writing against us... we have some other journalists on our hit list in the region, soon we will target them," Taliban commander Qari Saif Ullah Saif told Reuters.

Attacks on journalists in Pakistan are not uncommon and have been on the rise in recent times.

In September, two unidentified armed men shot dead senior journalist Aftab Alam in a drive-by shooting incident in Karachi.

A UN report issued on Monday said at least 71 Pakistani journalists and other media workers have lost their lives since 2001 while pursuing their duties.