The office of Independent News Pakistan (INP), a private news agency, was gutted after a fire broke out on Saturday night, incurring a loss of around Rs 20 million.
“The fire engulfed the entire office bringing everything, including air-conditioners, computers, printers, furniture and documents to ashes. However, there was no human loss,” INP Editor Javed Qureshi told APP.
The senior journalist described the inferno as part of a conspiracy and alleged that they had been receiving threats for a long time.
He demanded the government to conduct a comprehensive inquiry to find out elements or factors that were behind the incident.
He said around 150 employees were now jobless as a result of the incident, thus, he demanded the government to make arrangements for giving compensation so that the staff can feed their families.
Javed Qureshi said that the elements behind the incident s perhaps wanted to teach a lesson to INP and send a message to other independent media.
The fire broke out around at around 4:30 am and spread rapidly, engulfing the entire office situated on the third floor of block 18-B, F-6 Markaz Super Market in Islamabad.
Three staffers who were sleeping in one of the rooms after their late night duty said that they woke up due to smoke in their room. When they came out, they saw the huge fire at the entry gate of the office. The three staffers were rescued by the people who were going for prayers in the nearby Motamar Mosque and by those who were going for morning walk. By the time the fire brigade reached the spot all the office equipment worth over 20 million rupees was burned to ashes.
Information Minister Arif Nizami, Information Secretary Agha Nadeem condemned the incident and reiterated their support for an independent media.
Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, PML-N President Mian Nawaz Sharif, PML-N spokesman Senator Pervaiz Rashid, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, JUI-F Maulana Fazalur Rehman and other political leaders strongly condemned the high handedness against the media and called on the government to ensure their security.
PFUJ President Pervaiz Shaukat, National Press Club President (NPC) Farooq Faisal, and NPC General Secretary Sherayar Khan also extended their full cooperation to the management and the staff of INP in this difficult time. They said such acts cannot suppress the media.
PFUJ (Dastoor Group) President Idrees Bikhtayar telephoned INP editor from to convey his shock and assured that he would raise the issue at every forum.