Threat to TV anchor
ISLAMABAD, March 3: Columnist and anchorperson of a news channel, Javed Chaudhry, has contacted Kohsar police, after being threatened by an unidentified person.
According to police officials, Mr Chaudhry filed an application in which he alleged that a person had been threatening him through two different phone numbers.
A police officer said that First Information Report (FIR) had been registered and both phone numbers provided by the journalist were forwarded to the relevant department for further investigation.
“For most of the calls, non-registered SIMs were being used but still we have forwarded numbers to find out if they were registered on any person’s name,” he said.
Javed Chaudhry while talking to Dawn said that usually he faced criticism through social media but he had never showed any concern about it because it was routine for all journalists.
“But for the last few days I was getting calls from two different numbers, through which callers threatened me that they will kidnap me and my children,” he said.
“They said so many times that they will kill me that I took it seriously and informed the police about the calls. I cannot say that if they were extremists or from some investigation agencies but both numbers were used for calls were from out of the city,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention that in November, 2012, another journalist, Hamid Mir, was also threatened by some elements due to which he also lodged an FIR against unidentified persons.
Journalists belonging to federal capital, Syed Saleem Shahzad, Raja Asad, Mohammad Ismail and others have been murdered in separate incidents.
A special committee to investigate the issue of threats to journalists and media persons headed by MNA Ahsan Iqbal will be held on Monday in the parliament house.
The committee will discuss the issue and will also suggest precautionary security measures for the journalist community.
On the other hand, President Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Pervaiz Shaukat said that a delegation of International Federation of Journalists had already reached Pakistan and would meet relevant officials to discuss the security issue of journalists.
“PFUJ raised the issue time and again due to which it has been taken up at the international level. We demand that security be provided to the journalist community and in case of any incident, proper compensation should be provided to them,” he said.
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