Protest against journalist’s killing | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Protest against journalist’s killing

Amanullah Kasi

QUETTA: The Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) and Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) held demonstrations on Friday in protest against the killing of journalist Mukarram Khan Atif and kidnapping of four people belonging to the Hazara community.

In their separate demonstrations near the press club, members of the BUJ and activists of the HDP called upon the government to curb lawlessness in the province. They criticised the authorities for their failure to control growing incidents of killing and kidnapping for ransom.

Irfan Ahmed, Yaqoob Shahwani and Isa Tareen of the BUJ condemned the killing of Mukarram Khan and said the government failed to protect the journalist even though he had received several threats.

They said the lives of journalists working in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata were not safe and they regularly received death threats. They said that it was the government’s responsibility to protect the lives of journalists.

The BUJ leaders said that several journalists had been killed in the past two years in different areas of the country and several others faced life threats from religious extremists, militant groups and spy agencies.

They said the government must compensate the affected families and make arrangements for the care of children of the assassinated journalists.

Ghulam Ali Hazara and Mirza Hussain Hazara of the HDP said that four people of their community had been kidnapped a few days ago on the Quetta-Chaman highway for ransom, but the government failed to trace the kidnapped people.

They said the government should take notice of the kidnappings on the national highways and direct law-enforcement personnel to recover the kidnapped people.