Unknown gunmen on Tuesday killed a local journalist when he was praying at a mosque in the northwest of the country, police said.
Mukarram Khan Aatif, a 43-year-old correspondent with Deewa radio, was attacked at a mosque near his home in Shabqadar Town, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 30 kilometers north of Peshawar.
“The two attackers came on a motorbike, fired bullets at Aatif in the mosque and escaped. He suffered bullet wounds to the head,” local police officer Zahir Shah told media. Another police official confirmed the incident.
“Aatif was hit in the head and rushed to a hospital in Peshawar. The prayer leader was also injured,” said district police chief Nisar Khan Marwat.
Rahim Jan, a senior doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar said Aatif had succumbed to his injuries.
According to press watchdog Reporters Without Borders, Pakistan was the deadliest country for the media in 2011 with at least eight journalists killed in connection with their work.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ) has strongly condemned the killing of another senior journalist, Mukarram Khan Atif. In a statement, acting President Tariq Chaudhry and Secretary General Amin Yousuf expressed their deepest sorrow over the killing of the journalists.
They said the series of the killing of Journalists in the country has been continued for the last several years, as both the government and media managers have failed to provide security to the working journalists. All the Journalists Fraternity condoled the horrifying incident and shared the grief with the family of deceased.
