A local journalist was shot dead by unidentified persons inside his house in Dera Ismail Khan on Monday night, police said on Tuesday.
According to the first information report (FIR), lodged at the Cantt police station today on the complaint of the deceased's cousin, Qais Javed had entered his house and was in his front yard when unidentified persons on a motorcycle opened fire. The killers escaped the scene immediately after, it added.
Azmatullah, a police official at the Cantt police station, said initial investigation suggested the attackers had been tailing Javed.
The official said the FIR had been registered against unidentified persons and no arrests had been made so far. Investigations were underway to determine the motive behind the killing, he said.Javed, who belonged to the Christian faith, did not have personal enmity with anyone, his family said.
He was working with a local daily newspaper Ahad. Javed had also worked as a cameraman for a private news channel, Saudullah Marwat, a DI Khan-based journalist and a friend of the deceased, told DawnNewsTV.
According to Associated Press, 37-year-old Javed had recently started his own web channel.
Pakistan is considered one of the most dangerous places for journalists with 70 having been killed in the country in the last two decades, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.No group immediately claimed responsibility for the killing and police said they were investigating to determine the motive.
Armed attacks on journalists in Pakistan have intensified in recent times. Earlier in September, a female journalist, Shaheena Shaheen, was Shot dead at her home in the Turbat area of Balochistan’s Kech district.
Shaheen, 25, was a local anchorperson at state-owned broadcaster PTV and editor of a local magazine. At the time, Kech Superintendent of Police (SP) Najeebullah Pandrani said “the killing was the result of domestic violence”.
The same month, human rights office of the United Nations voiced concern over growing instances of threats of violence against journalists particularly in Pakistan, calling upon the government to take “immediate, concrete steps” to ensure their protection.
The UN rights office said it had followed “with increasing concern” numerous cases of incitement to violence — online and offline — against journalists in the country, particularly against women.
