Injured journalist dies of blast wounds | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Injured journalist dies of blast wounds

On June 17, 2011, Shafiullah Khan, 28, a young trainee reporter at the daily “The News”, Peshawar succumbed to his critical wounds he received during two deadly blasts that ripped through the military cantonment’s Khyber Supermarket in a commercial and residential area of Peshawar, the capital city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan on 11 June 2011.

Khan is the second journalist who died in same bomb blasts. Earlier, journalist Asfandyar Abid Naveed died on the spot. Seven other journalists had sustained minor injuries in the twin blasts.

With demise of another journalist, the overall casualties rose to 42. Police investigators believed the first low intensity bomb was planted as a trap to target mostly the police and journalists who were expected to come to the site of the explosion.

Khan had recently done MA in Journalism from the Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan and joined only a week before the deadly attack. Khan joined other journalists in rushing to the scene of the first low-intensity blast in a toilet of a restaurant just a few metres away from the newspaper’s office, and fell victim to the subsequent suicide attack when a man on a motorbike detonated his “suicide vest”, causing a high number of casualties.

He had received third degree burns and was referred to the Khyber Teaching Hospital’s (KTH) burn unit. His elder brother Azizullah, who is an officer at the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Islamabad, shifted him to the Pakistan Ordnance Factories’ (POF) Hospital in Wah Cantonment where a specialized burn care centre exists. Doctors said he also received a metal-shrapnel in his right shoulder.

Journalists across Pakistan have condemned the blasts and asked the government to provide protection to journalists and compensation to Khan’s family.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masood Kausar and Chief Minister, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti expressed deep grief and sorrow over the demise of journalist Khan.

Source: Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)
Date:6/21/2011