Expressing resentment over the assassination of Malik Mumtaz, a senior journalist from North Waziristan, Khyber Union of Journalists President Arshad Aziz on Thursday urged the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take notice.
“It is astonishing that the chief justice is active on all fronts but seems silent about growing violence against journalists,” the KUJ president said while addressing a protest rally.
On the call of the KUJ, journalists from all over Peshawar and its surrounding areas took to the streets. KUJ Secretary-General Ali Hazrat Bacha, Peshawar Press Club President Nasar Hussain and Tribal Union of Journalists President Nasar Mohmand also addressed the protesters.
The participants shouted slogans against the government, law enforcers and militants involved in terrorism and target killing.
The KUJ president said that more than 90 journalists had been killed in the country since 9/11. As many as 13 had lost their lives in 2013, he remarked, adding that a majority of them were from the Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
He demanded that the government make public report into Hayatullah’s killing as it could reveal the hidden hands involved in assassination of journalists. He also demanded that the government compensate Mumtaz’s family.
Meanwhile, Malik Mumtaz was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Miranshah, North Waziristan. The funeral prayers were attended by a large number of people.
KP Governor Shaukatullah Khan and Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti expressed their grave concern over the assassination and extended sympathies with the aggrieved family.