Taliban threaten attacks on media outlets | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Taliban threaten attacks on media outlets

Pakistan Press Foundation

KARACHI: The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Saturday for a deadly attack on a private television channel in Karachi and threatened further violence against media outlets.

A spokesman said in a statement that militants had attacked a TV channel van on Friday night, killing three employees, because the station had acted as a “propagandist”.

“We claim the responsibility… The reason of the attack is that in the war of ideologies all media channels… are acting as propagandist and as rival party,” Ehsanullah Ehsan said.

“We will attack all the media houses that are involved in carrying out propaganda against us” he said.
A technician, driver and security guard were killed when gunmen attacked the van late on Friday.

The Pakistani Taliban had attacked the same TV channel in December. “We had not incurred any loss of life so we attacked them again,” Ehsan told AFP in a phone call from an undisclosed location.

Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said last month that Pakistan was among the world’s five deadliest countries for the media in its annual round-up of press freedom violations.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif constituted a two-member committee to contact media houses and assess security threats to them.

The committee consists of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid.

Daily Times


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