Karachi: Following a grenade attack at the office of a private television channel in Islamabad, Sindh IGP Ghulam Hyder Jamali issued directives on Thursday to ensure extraordinary security measures for the protection of offices of electronic and print media outlets, their staff and journalists.

According to a statement issued by the Sindh Police, the IGP has issued directives to ensure security for journalists, cameramen, photographers and other media workers in the province. He instructed that police mobiles and motorcycles should enhance patrolling in the areas where media houses are located. The IGP said security should be maintained to protect the lives of citizens and a report should be submitted on daily basis.

Safety of journalists remains a concern in Karachi as several attacks were witnessed over the past year as well. These included a two-day spree in September that claimed the life of a Geo News satellite engineer when one of the channel’s DSNG vans came under attack in Bahadurabad. The van driver had also suffered injuries in the attack.

A day later, a senior journalist, Aftab Alam, was fatally targeted in the city, and later that same month, another TV channel’s DSNG van was attacked, though no injuries were reported.

The News

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court issued on Monday non-bailable warrants of arrest for two suspects said to be affiliated with a banned sectarian outfit, allegedly involved in the murder of a journalist.

The ATC-II issued warrants for Adeel Raza Zaidi and Salman Raza as police submitted the charge sheet of the case. Another suspect, Zeeshan Haider Zaidi, is in custody in connection with the killing.

Zeeshan’s arrest was revealed by the counter terrorism department in September, two weeks after journalist Aftab Alam was gunned down outside his house in North Karachi. The prosecution maintains that the suspects belonged to the defunct Shia militant group Sipah-i-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP).

The arrested suspect has confessed in police custody that he, in collusion with his absconding accomplices, killed Alam, the investigators claim.

Zeeshan, who is an employee of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, is said to be the leader of a target killing team of the SMP and is accused of killing at least five people on sectarian grounds in the city this year.

The court has ordered the police to arrest the absconding suspects and present them on next hearing of the case on January 15, 2016.

Express Tribune

KARACHI: Police on Monday claimed to have arrested a suspected militant of the outlawed Sipah-i-Mohammad Pakistan allegedly involved in the recent killing of a television journalist.

Speaking at a press conference at the Garden Police Headquarters, Counter-Terrorism Department SSP Amir Farooqi identified the suspect as Zeeshan Haider and said that a 9mm pistol was also seized from him.

“He is associated with the Raza Imam group of the banned Sipah-i-Mohammed Pakistan,” said SSP Amir Farooqi of the CTD. “He disclosed that he along with his armed aides killed TV journalist Aftab Alam and two brothers Imran and Waqar the same day in North Karachi earlier this month. His group was also involved in firing on a roadside eatery last month that claimed two lives.”

He said the suspect was an active member of a hit men’s group that had targeted several people in recent days.

When asked about the motive for the recent surge in their activities, he said that the group was targeting people on different grounds and it was not “necessarily for sectarian motive”.

“The killing of Aftab Alam was carried out by the group to create panic and fear as the news of his killing got widespread media coverage,” said SSP Farooqi. “It also benefited the banned sectarian group as the victim journalist was associated with their rival school of thought.”

Similarly, the killing of the caterer brothers, who also belonged to the Deobandi school of thought, worked the same way as it benefited their sectarian agenda and also helped them in creating fear so that they could expand their extortion racket, he added.

Dawn

Police have arrested four suspects including the alleged mastermind behind killing of journalist Aftab Alam who was murdered on 9 September outside his residence in Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan.

Three of the suspects were arrested on September 14 while the alleged mastermind was arrested on September 11. According to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Alam was not murdered because of his profession; rather the motive for the murder was sectarian animosities.

According to DIG the suspects belonged to anti-Shiite school of thought and they wanted to fuel sectarian violence by targeting members of Shiite sect, ahead of the holy month of Muharram, when emotions and tensions run high.

Police also said mobile phones and arms were recovered from the possession of the arrested suspects and they had been trained abroad. Police has not yet disclosed names of the arrested suspects.

Alam was fatally shot in his head on September 9, by unknown armed men who fled from the scene after shooting him. Alam had previously worked for Geo News and Samaa News television channels but had not been working for over a year because of health reasons.

Pakistan Press Foundation

KARACHI: Rangers and police personnel have arrested a suspect in connection to the murder of senior journalist Aftab Alam in Karachi earlier this week, sources told Geo News on Friday.

According to the sources, law enforcers have completed their initial investigation into the murder and arrested the suspect , who is currently being interrogated.

Alam was shot dead on Wednesday by unknown gunmen outside his house in North Karachi’s Sector 11-C area – the second media worker killed in the city in as many days.

Sources privy to the matter said investigators so far have been unable to make any progress in the investigation of the fatal terrorist attack on a Geo News DSNG van in which senior satellite engineer Arshad Ali Jafri lost his life.

Geo TV

Karachi: The murder of a satellite engineer of Geo News on Tuesday night and then a journalist formerly associated with the channel on Wednesday morning has left media personnel worried about their safety.

Analysts believe that although target killings have reduced in Karachi following the crackdown against criminals, journalists are still soft targets.

On Tuesday night, two men fired gunshots at a Geo News digital satellite news gathering van in Bahadurabad, killing satellite engineer Arshad Ali Jaffery and injuring the driver.

Then on Wednesday morning, Aftab Alam, a journalist formerly associated with Geo News, was shot dead outside his house in North Karachi, the second attack on person affiliated with the media in less than 24 hours.

Over the years, Karachi has gained notoriety for being the most dangerous city in Pakistan.

Ethno-political, sectarian, Taliban militant and criminal violence plagues the country’s largest city and commercial hub.

However, recent statistics released by independent bodies including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Centre for Research and Security Studies show that the overall security situation in the city has improved following the ongoing law enforcement agencies’ operation.

But journalists in the city still face serious security threats.

Journalists and office-bearers of their associations say that media personnel are not only facing threats from some political parties, Taliban militants, sectarian groups and criminal gang, but law enforcement personnel too.

Different threats

Aamir Latif, a journalist and former general secretary of the Karachi Press Club, said these threats were of different kinds. Besides, they were delivered in different ways.

“Unlike in Balochistan or FATA, journalists in Karachi don’t face a generalised threat.

The recent killing of two media personnel indicates that everyone, from a field reporter to a journalist on the desk or on the technical side, can be targeted,” Latif told The News. He added that the headquarters of all major media houses were located in Karachi.

Recently, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based international media rights body, ranked Pakistan at 159 out of 180 countries here media freedom suffered a “drastic decline” in the 2015 World Press Index with a score of 50.46.

Iqbal Khattak, the RSF’s Pakistan representative, said Karachi was the most dangerous city for journalists because of its large population and chaotic situation, where a number of actors were involved in violence.

“In other troubled parts of the country, including Balochistan and FATA, we know the key actors who target journalists, but in Karachi, the situation is totally different,” he explained.

“It’s very difficult to find out which elements are targeting journalists in the city and that increases the threat level.”

Khattak said the recent trends needed to be studied to understand which actors could be behind the attacks on media personnel in Karachi.

Media outlets

Analysts also stressed the need for media outlets to ensure that security protocols were followed.

Latif said journalists in Karachi cover the ongoing law enforcement agencies’ crackdown, gang clashes, sectarian violence and ethnic polarisation as their organisations push them to provide exclusive footage and breaking news.

“Only a few TV channels have provided their reporters with flak jackets and there is no security for most of them,” he added.

Khattak said journalists themselves needed to calculate the level of risk they were putting themselves into.

“If a journalist doesn’t know what is going on in their surroundings, they can’t ascertain the level of threat,” he added.

Besides, many reporters are not trained for working in conflict zones or hostile environments, and so are unable to take precautionary steps.

In case of firing or a bomb blast, reporters and cameramen rush to the scene for exclusive footage. The stiff competition between TV news channels puts their lives at risk.

Journalists said the role of law enforcement agencies in terms of providing them with protection was also disappointing.

Despite receiving complaints from journalists, the law enforcers do not take serious steps for their security.

The News