Pakistan

The body of Pakistani journalist Abdul Hameed Hayatan, 25, was found on November 18 near the Sami river in Turbat, in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, according to media reports. Hayatan, who wrote for a number of print dailies, was abducted along with a friend on October 25, while on his way home from a wedding in the city of Gawadar. His friends and family reportedly believed that Pakistani...

The body of Abdul Hameed Hayatan, a young Baloch journalist who was abducted in the southwestern port city of Gwadar on October 25, was found beside the River Sami in Turbat, 40 km to the east, on November 18. His reporting critical of the Pakistani authorities and his support for the Baloch national movement were almost certainly the motive for his abduction and murder. “If the local and federal...

Pakistani journalist Lala Hameed Baloch's body was found with gunshot wounds on Thursday outside of Turbat, in western Pakistan's Baluchistan province, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Hameed disappeared on October 25 while on his way from Turbat to his home in Gwader, according to the Gwader Press Club. Local journalists believe he was seized by Pakistani...

Two incidents in recent weeks have again highlighted the dangers for journalists in Pakistan. One is the detention of Ghulam Rasool Khan in the eastern province of Punjab without due process since November 3. The other is the disappearance of Abdul Hameed Hayatan, also known as Lala Hameed, in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where his colleagues think he was abducted by security...

Pakistan must take immediate steps to rein in police and government agencies that threaten reporters. Two cases in recent days—those of journalists Hafiz Imran and Umar Cheema—demonstrate how reporting on stories that are critical of the authorities can bring officials' wrath down on reporters. "It's deeply disturbing to hear that journalists are receiving death threats under Pakistan's new...

Authorities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa must thoroughly investigate Thursday's murder of Mujeebur Rehman Siddique, the second killing of a journalist in the province in one week, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Gunmen shot Siddique, local correspondent for the Islamabad-based, Urdu-language daily Pakistan in the town of Dargai as he was leaving a mosque on Thursday evening...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is supporting a request by Shakil Turabi, the editor-in-chief of the Islamabad-based South Asian News Agency (SANA), for the authorities to carry a rapid and thorough investigation into his 18-year-old son's disappearance since January 5 this year. Turabi believes that military intelligence agencies were involved in abducting his son...

After repeated death threats, journalist Misri Khan was shot dead Tuesday by unidentified gunmen outside his office in Hangu, in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. No one claimed the killing but his son thought a religious group could have been involved. Khan was the correspondent of the dailies Mashriq and Ausaf and ran a newspaper distribution agency. Khan’s 25-year-old son, Umer...

A British journalist held hostage by militants in north-west Pakistan has been freed after spending almost six months in captivity. Asad Qureshi was abducted with two former Pakistani intelligence officers while travelling in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan. Local newspapers reported that a ransom of 14m rupees was paid although there was no independent confirmation. Qureshi went...

Two TV employees have been killed in Quetta and an investigative journalist has been abducted in Islamabad. A cameraman and a TV station driver were killed and six other journalists seriously injured in a suicide bombing on September 3 in Quetta and the ensuing acts of revenge violence by demonstrators who were targeted by the bombing. The overall death toll was 59. In Islamabad, an investigative...