PPF remembers Chishti Mujahid — Slain in 2008, no progress on investigation yet
Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) remembers the work of a photojournalist and columnist for the Urdu-language weekly Akbar-e-Jehan Dr Abdus Samad Chishti Mujahid, was fatally shot by a gunman in Quetta, the capital of the Balochistan province on February 9, 2008.
Mujahid’s murder was the result of a headline — a headline he had not himself even written — that angered the Baloch Liberation Army, now a banned group. It provides a cautionary tale for newsrooms in the country to train not just senior reporters but all desk staff.
On the fateful day, Mujahid, 55, was shot as he was coming out of his house with his wife. He received one bullet in the face and another in the chest area. He was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Speaking to PPF, Mujahid’s widow Gulnaz Akhtar said: “My husband was murdered for his writing, no one was punished for his brutal killing.
Satellite Town Police Station Moharrar told PPF that a First Information Report was registered for the murder but no one was arrested as the FIR was just a document on which no investigation was carried out.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) had claimed responsibility for the killing. According to press reports, BLA spokesman Meerak Baloch telephoned the Quetta Press Club and said Mujahid had been killed because he was working against the Baloch cause.
The BLA claimed responsibility, saying it was in revenge for an article about the killing of one of its leaders Mir Balach Marri. It was not the article that BLA found offensive but the headline of an article that was not written by Mujahid but by the editors of the magazine..
Balochistan Union of Journalists President Salman Ashraf said that the slain journalist paid the price for a headline that wasn’t even written by him but had been edited by the editing desk in a “provocative manner”.
“Mujahid was a brilliant and passionate journalist. Writers and sub editors should focus on words and write according to the circumstances,” Ashraf added.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists President Shehzada Zulfiqar said “Organizations should take responsibility [for ] every published writing and reporting by correspondents. The editorial desk must be trained about the situation of every part of the country and world so they can edit the stories keeping in mind the possible circumstances,” he added.
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