BUJ condemns threats to journalists
QUETTA: President of the Balochistan Union of Journalists Essa Tareen and its Secretary Hamadullah have condemned threats received by senior journalist and anchor Hamid Mir and family members of Hafeez Hasanabadi, a well-known columnist of Balochistan, and demanded of the military establishment to take notice of the matter.
In a press statement issued here on Friday, the president and the secretary of BUJ said that security agencies were using the same methods they had used in Balochistan to muzzle press freedom and now they had started threatening senior journalists in other parts of the country as well.
They said 20 journalists had so far been killed in Balochistan alone and more than half of them were targeted allegedly by intelligence agencies and their hand-picked militant organisations.
They said that family members, including sons of Hafeez Hasanabadi, a journalist and columnist, were being harassed by personnel of security agencies and militant organisations.
The BUJ office-bearers said that now Hamid Mir was being harassed to muzzle his voice because he had been raising public issues in his talk shows.
They said that the commission constituted to probe into the murder of
Saleem Shahzad had yet to submit its findings and journalists were still being threatened and harassed. They said that if security personnel involved in such illegal activities were not stopped, the country would earn a bad name.
The BUJ leaders demanded of authorities of military establishment to probe into the matter and took action against personnel of security agencies responsible for sending threats to Hamid Mir through SMS on his mobile phone.
They also demanded of the government and military authorities to ensure protection of Mr Mir and family members of Mr Hafeez Hasanabadi.
Source: Dawn
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