Journalist demands security | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Journalist demands security

KOHAT – A journalist who recently escaped an attempt on his life allegedly by drug smugglers in Orakzai Agency has urged the government to provide him security. The journalist, Nazeer Badshah, the Orakzai correspondent of a weekly published from Kohat has been in hiding since the attack.

He told Dawn on telephone that the drug smugglers announced Rs500,000 as reward for his head after he had written an article on hemp production in the tribal area some time back. He said that the government should provide him khasadar guards so that he could go to his native village where his sick and old mother needed his attention.

Local journalists at a meeting in Kohat on June 23 condemned the attack on the life of Nazeer Badshah and termed it a cowardly act. A resolution adopted at the meeting called upon the political agent of the Orakzai Agency, Mr Yousaf Khan, to ensure security of the journalist and his family and arrest the culprits involved in the attack.

They praised the courage displayed by the journalist in exposing the drug production and smuggling from tribal areas into cities, which had already ruined the lives of hundreds of youths.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/24/2004