Attacks on journalists are becoming a growing reality in our country. Last year, according to the New York-based watchdog body, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), five were killed while going about their professional duties. Local groups put the number at 10, and the CPJ has already declared Pakistan to be one of the most dangerous places in the world for media professionals, as a result of the mounting toll noted particularly over the past five years.

On March 2, another attack was witnessed. Ibrar Tanoli, the general secretary of Mansehra Press Club, was fired upon while commuting in the city. He consequently died the next day at the Intensive Care Unit of an Abbottabad hospital. The motives for the shooting are unclear and there is no certainty as to whether they were based on personal enmity or other factors. What we do know, however, is that too many journalists have been killed; too many cases left unsolved. Even now, we do not know who kidnapped tribal journalist Hayatullah Khan in December 2005 and left his dead, tortured body in the North Waziristan town of Miramshah six months later. This failure to mete out justice under the law can only encourage more such acts.

The state needs to play a more active role in providing security to journalists. It has failed entirely in this so far. The result is not only the fear that hangs over journalists, but also a restriction on the basic right of citizens to information. This situation needs to be resolved and media professionals offered the protection they need to go about their work safely. At present, they have been deprived of this. The degree of the threat they face has, in fact, grown and this affects all of us in one way or the other. The duty of ensuring access to facts must be taken more seriously by authorities and journalists enabled to work without the threat of violence constantly hanging over them as has currently become the case in a country where an attempt to impose silence seems to be on.

Express Tribune

ABBOTABAD: Ibrar Tanoli, the journalist who was critically injured in a shooting on Sunday, passed away at the age of 28 in Ayub Medical Complex (AMC), Abbottabad on Monday morning.

The photojournalist had been serving as the general secretary of the Mansehra Press Club. He was also affiliated with a foreign wire service as a stringer and correspondent for an Urdu-daily Hazara News.

Tanoli was heading home from the press club on Sunday when an unidentified gunman opened fire on him while his car was stuck in traffic on Shinkari Road in Mansehra. He was taken to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital from where he was referred to AMC.

According to the police, the assailant shot Tanoli twice with a 9mm pistol. Doctors said one of the bullets was lodged in his neck, paralysing his lower body.

Tanoli remained in a coma for over 12 hours before breathing his last around 4am on Monday. He was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Morbafa Khurd in Mansehra. Journalists from across Hazara, political activists and social workers attended his funeral. Tanoli is survived by a widow, two daughters and a son.

A colourful career

Tanoli started off as a photojournalist, covering the devastating 2005 earthquake in Kashmir. His services were hired by foreign news agencies. Tanoli also covered the Swat operation in 2009. His photographs of the compound in Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was killed were used by Reuters and published in many international publications.

In January 2013, Tanoli was arrested on charges of allegedly murdering two brothers who hailed from Swat, Zakirullah and Haleemullah. However, the Abbottabad bench of the Peshawar High Court released him on bail a few months ago.

After he received threats to his life, the police provided him a guard, however, the protection was withdrawn after a while for reasons that remain unknown.

Outrage

Journalists from the Hazara region have condemned Tanoli’s murder and decided to hold a protest on Tuesday (today). According to Mansehra Union of Journalists Senior Vice President Syed Noman Shah, media members from Manshera will hold a protest rally to condemn their colleague’s murder.

“A joint rally will also be held in Abbottabad in which office bearers of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists will participate. A sit-in will be held in front of the office of Hazara DIG,” shared Shah.

Express Tribune