News / Pakistan

Gunmen kill journalist in Pakistan’s district of Kohat

Sunday, 22 November 2015 2:12 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 22 November 2015 2:13 PM ]

Pakistani relatives, journalists and residents carry the coffin of television journalist Hafeez Ur Rehman, who was killed by gunmen in Kohat in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, November 22, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Heavily-armed assailants have gunned down a Pakistani journalist in the country’s troubled northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, security sources say.

Fazal Naeem, a police spokesman, said on Sunday that the gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on Hafeez Ur Rehman, 42, near his home on the outskirts of Kohat district.

“He was hit by three bullets and died on the spot,” media outlets quoted Rehman as saying.

The assailants managed to flee the scene before security forces arrived.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the latest killing, but pro-Taliban militant groups have been blamed for such attacks in the past.

Mehsud worked for the local Neo TV network, covering the northwestern tribal region and the surrounding areas.

Pakistani relatives, journalists and residents offer funeral prayers for television journalist Hafeez Ur Rehman, who was killed by gunmen in Kohat in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province on November 22, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

The killing came weeks after attackers shot dead 40-year-old Zaman Mehsud, a newspaper journalist in the nearby town of Tank in early November.

In September, Aftab Alam, a senior journalist, and Arshad Ali Jaffery, a 45-year-old GEO TV satellite engineer, were killed in two separate attacks by gunmen in the southern port city of Karachi. Another journalist was also shot and injured in the northwestern city of Peshawar in the same month.

Last year, one of Geo TV’s senior anchors, Hamid Mir, was shot and injured in Karachi. The attack sparked anger and protest in the violence-hit country. Mir’s family accused Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter–Services Intelligence (ISI), of being behind the attack.

In 2011, the tortured body of Saleem Shahzad, a prominent Pakistani journalist who investigated links between the ISI and militant groups, was discovered near the capital, Islamabad.

According to a recent report by the United Nations, over 70 Pakistani media workers and journalists have lost their lives since 2001 while pursuing their career. The report ranked Pakistan as the world’s fifth worst country in terms of the number of unresolved cases of violence against journalists.

Pakistani journalists have called for a tight insurance policy for journalists and compensation for those who die or are injured in line of duty.

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