Editor (Asia: South)
KARAK — Pakistani reporter Ayub Khattak was shot dead outside his house in the Karak district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on October 11, 2013. The murder has been allegedly linked to Khattak’s investigation on drug dealing and his work with the Karak Times.
Khattak was reportedly shot by two men on a motorcycle, who had been waiting for him by his house. After questioning him about his investigation on drug dealing, they came back and shot him multiple times. Khattak passed away while he was rushed to the hospital.
Khattak had previously received threats in connection with his work. He had been investigating the drug dealing in Wrana Mir Hassankhel. According to his family, Khattak had not been involved in any personal issues and the murder was clearly connected to his investigation. According to fellow reporter Haleem Bukhari, Karak had “filed a story on the sale of drugs and drug-sellers” which was why he was targeted. Two drug dealers, Aminullah and Hasab Niaz have been suspected for the murder. They are currently wanted by the police and seem to be on the run.
Khattak, a father of ten, is not the first journalist in Pakistan to be murdered this year. There have been six other cases of journalists being killed for their work since the beginning of the year, and several others of them being attacked. Sardar Shafiq, a local journalist at Urdu-language Daily in Abbottabad and head of the city’s journalist union was recently attacked by three men with steel bars on October 10, 2013, a day before Khattak’s murder. Shafiq was immediately taken to the hospital and survived his injuries.
Reporters Without Borders have requested federal authorities to provide more security to media people and “step up their efforts to protect journalists.”
Image Courtesy: Nicolas Raymond (http://www.flickr.com/photos/80497449@N04/7378367012/)
Sadichchha Pokharel
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