Senior journalist Baakhsheesh Elahi shot dead

PESHAWAR: Bakhsheesh Elahi, a senior journalist from Haripur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was shot dead by unidentified assailants in his native village Sarai Saleh, Sunday morning.

Police officials have told that attackers were on bike and opened fire against Bakhsheesh when he reached Lora Chawk. The assailants fired relentlessly and Bakhsheesh passed away on the spot.

Bakhsheesh, commonly known as Bakhshi, was on way to his office in Abbottabad where he was supervising the private Urdu-Hindko television K-2 as its Bureau Chief for Hazara region.

Daily K-2 editor Sardar Iftikhar when contacted said that Bakshi was murdered close to a police post which highlights our security failures. He said that soon after the incident, local journalists from Haripur and Abbottabad rushed to the site and staged a demonstration.

In response to a question, Sardar Iftikhar denied the possibility of someone having personal enmity against Bakhshi. He said that Bakhshi was among the most active, talented and dedicated journalists and he believed that his determined activism is the sole reason for his murder.

A large number of journalists and other media personnel have been targeted and killed in the past decade. Throughout the country, about 109 journalists have been victims of violence, with 40 of such journalists being from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adjoining Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA).