Taliban militants blow up journalist’s house in Pakistan’s militancy plagued district of Buner
The house of Rahman Buneri, correspondent of Voice of America (VOA) Pashto language service “Deewa Radio” was blown up July 9, 2009, by the Pakistani Taliban in the militancy plagued Buner district of Pakistan’s, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan.
Buneri, who is also Deputy Director of News of the local Pashto language television channel “AVT Khyber TV” works and lives in Karachi but his parents and extended family live in his ancestral home in Buner.
Buneri told PPF that about sixty masked men with weapons entered the house in Buner at around 2am Thursday morning, forced the occupants at gunpoint to vacate it. The attackers ransacked and destroyed the contents in the home. When the family, including his father, two sisters-in-law and children vacated the house, the Taliban planted explosives on all sides of house and within a few moments there was an explosion. The attackers stayed until the house was reduced to rubble. No one was hurt in the attack.
Buneri said that the Taliban told his father that they had been ordered to blow up the house as punishment for Buneri for speaking against the Taliban. Buneri believes the immediate cause of the attack was the interview he gave to VOA four days ago said four days ago on the situation in Buner in which he had said that Taliban militants were operating freely in Buner.
The Karachi Union of Journalist (KUJ) and Association of TV journalist (ATJ) have planned a protest on Saturday, July 11, 2009 in Karachi. Yousuf Ali, General Secretary of Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ) strongly condemned the attack.
Source: Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)
Date:7/10/2009
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