Condemning the murder of a local journalist along with his brother and a friend, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the authorities concerned to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice immediately.
About 20 unidentified attackers had shot dead Aurangzeb Tunio, a reporter of the Sindhi-language Kawish Television Network, his brother Rustam Tunio and a family friend Deedar Khaskheli on Thursday night.
The men were sitting in the local bureau office of the broadcaster in Lalu Ranwak a village in the province of Sindh, about 535 miles (850 kilometres) south of Islamabad.
Reportedly, the attackers were angry with the reporter about a story that he had covered on a failed marriage attempt between a man from the Tunio tribe and a woman from the rival Mughairi clan.
According to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and local journalists, the assailants were members of the Mughairi tribe, as tension between the tribal groups in Sindh are common.
“We condemn these murders and call on Pakistani authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice,” said CPJ Asia programme coordinator Bob Dietz. “The authorities must send a clear message that there is no place for such violence.”
Pakistan was ranked among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists in 2010 and 2011.
Since 1992, at least 42 Pakistani journalists have been killed over direct links to their work.
