Two media personnel were killed, while six others were injured and many others had to face violence in 2015 while performing their duties.
In addition, 11 media personnel were booked in false cases and equipment of many of the media workers was damaged or destroyed during the year. Television channels remained primary targets of violent attacks during the year.
According to research by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), federal or provincial governments did not respond with seriousness to any of the fifteen cases of violence against media personnel during the year. Not a single case relating to violence against media resulted in an arrest and prosecution, despite repeated assurances by government ministers.
According to the details of the PPF’s “Pakistan Media Safety Report 2015”, Arshad Ali Jaffery, a technical engineer of digital satellite news gathering (DSNG) van of Geo News was killed and the driver Anis Chauhan injured on September 8, when unidentified armed men opened fire on their vehicle in Karachi. No one claimed responsibility for the attack and no arrests in the case have yet been made.
Zaman Mehsud, a reporter of daily Ummat and Sana news agency, based in Tank, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was ambushed and shot dead on November 3; one day after the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists was commemorated in Pakistan and the rest of the world. Taliban commander Qari Saifullah claimed the responsibility for his murder and said: “We killed him because he was writing against us. We have some other journalists on our hit list in the region; soon we will target them.”
Besides Geo’s van driver’s injuries, all five cases of violence leading to injury of media personnel occurred in the last two months of the year. On November 20, hand grenades were hurled at the Faisalabad bureau office of Dunya News television channel injuring two staff members, a business executive named Saifur Rehman, and Nazar Hussain, a security guard. The attackers left notes claiming the attacks were by followers of Daulat-e-Islamia Khurasan (Islamic State Khurasan group) and warned of more attacks on media.
Another attack whose responsibility was claimed by terrorists of Daesh happened on December 1. The attackers threw a hand grenade at Lahore offices of Din News injuring the receptionist Masood Mukhtar as well as two police constables, Mohammed Ijaz and Nasir Abbas. In this incident also, the attackers left threatening notes warning the media.
Another incident of attack on a DSNG occurred on November 27 in Karachi, when unidentified armed men opened fire on the DSNG van belonging to Dawn News and injured its engineer Hassan Mateen. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Another attack with a homemade explosive device was carried out on Express News office in Sargodha on December 7. In this attack, a security guard of the television channel, received injuries. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack.
Detention of journalists is a commonplace occurrence in conflict areas and tribal areas of the country. Law enforcement agencies, militants and civil administration routinely indulge in abductions and illegal detentions to threaten journalists who do not tow their line. In most cases, families and colleagues of the detained journalists prefer to plead for their release rather than publicise the illegal actions, for fear of harm to their loved ones.
On October 10, Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel raided the house of Rahat Shinwari, a correspondent of an Urdu daily, Ausaf, in Landi Kotal, a town in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. They blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown destination. He was released the next day without giving reason for his detention.
On March 31, the security forces detained Nasrum Minallah, a correspondent of Express Tribune, along with Haji Pazir Gul, a correspondent of Dawn and Abidullah Amin of Roznama Pakistan and his brother Shafiqullah Amin. They were detained for 10 hours at Kajori check post in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) near Pak-Afghan border as they were going for the coverage of internally displaced persons (IDPs)
The PPF, like previous years, also recorded a number of cases of manhandling and harassment of media workers in the year 2015. On December 20, Muhammad Ansar, a reporter of Aaj News television channel was manhandled by police for covering the allegedly illegal closure of sugar mills in Tando Muhammad Khan, a district in the southern part of Sindh province in Pakistan.
On August 20, security guards of Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) Karachi manhandled eleven media persons who arrived there to cover the expected visit of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. Those manhandled included Danyal Sayyed, reporter of AbbTakk News; Tanveer Ahmed reporter of Dawn News; Talha, cameraman of Dawn News; Arif Khan, cameraman of Aaj News; Khawar Khan, reporter of Geo News; Rajab Ali, reporter of NEO TV; Taha Ubadi, reporter of Dunya TV; Kafeel Ahmed, reporter of AAJ TV; Muhammad Ashad, reporter of C 92; Waqas Lodhi, cameraman of Metro TV and Imran Yameen, cameraman of Dunya TV.
On May 23, the Special Security Unit (SSU) of the police beat up reporters, photographers and cameramen while they were covering the appearance of Dr Zulfiqar Mirza outside the Sindh High Court (SHC) in Karachi. The police used wooden staffs to beat up the journalists and also damaged their equipment. On June 2, eleven journalists and media workers were booked in false cases. Three of them were charged under Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). Those charged claimed that the real reason for registering criminal cases against journalists and media workers was because they covered the activities of Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, who had broken away from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Those who had cases registered against them included Mumtaz Memon and Niaz Memon of the daily Sindh; Yousuf Jani and Dir Murad Mari of the daily Koshish; Shankar Kumar and Meharrudin Mari of the daily Hilal e Pakistan; Shafqat Pinyaro of the daily Sindh and Express News, Aachar Azeem of the daily Tameer e Sindh; Murtaza Memon of Neo TV and Haji Khan Lashari of daily Koshish.
Despite high sounding promises of bringing about legislation for safety of media personnel and organizations, the government made no serious effort to introduce effective legislation that would punish those who inflict harm on Pakistan’s media personnel.
This is really too sad to read the killing of journalist. they are the person who are dedication in their job. They are the one due to which we are getting information about anything and everything. Its really a risk job.. We should respect them individually.
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