On the morning of 3 November 2015, one day after the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, journalist Zaman Mehsud was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on his motorcycle in Tank, a district in Khyber Pahktunkhwa province, Pakistan.

According to Reuters news agency, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban commander Qari Saif Ullah said “We killed him because he was writing against us. We have some other journalists on our hit list in the region, soon we will target them.”

Mehsud, 38, was travelling from Gomal bazaar when unidentified gunmen opened fire near the Dabara refugee camp. The assailants who were also on a motorcycle managed to escape after shooting him.

Mehsud was critically injured and taken to the District Headquarter Hospital Tank, and later to the District Headquarters Hospital in Dera Ismail Khan where he succumbed to his injuries. Mehsud received four bullets to the chest, doctors said.

Mehsud was a senior journalist associated with the Urdu language Daily Ummat and the SANA news agency. He was running his own twitter news account, “Gomel News”, and had served as president and secretary general of the Tribal Union of Journalists’ South Waziristan chapter. He was also a monitor for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

According to local journalists, he did not get any threats and did not have any enmities with anyone.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has condemned the killing of Mehsued and demanded the government take prompt action to arrest the culprits. The PFUJ leaders have called for a country-wide protest on Thursday [5 November] if the local police failed to arrest the journalist’s killers

The murder was also condemned by the FATA Journalists’ Association, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and many journalists’ unions.

Aslam Khan, the slain journalist’s brother, registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the unidentified killers.

Mehsud hailed from Mantoi area of Ladha in South Waziristan and was residing in Tank. He leaves behind his wife, three sons and two daughters.

Pakistan Press Foundation

Education campaigner Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban in October 2012 but recovered and went on to win this year’s Nobel peace prize.

The 17-year-old has been hailed around the world for standing up for girls’ rights to education, but the response to her in Pakistan has not been universally positive, with some seeing her as a “Western agent” on a mission to shame her country.

The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation last year barred its members from buying Malala’s memoir “I am Malala” because of what the group said was its “anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam content.“

Read more: Pakistani private schools ban Malala’s book

It said the book, written with British journalist Christina Lamb, was too sympathetic to British novelist Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie in 1989 became the target of an Iranian fatwa, or religious edict, calling for his murder for allegedly blaspheming Islam and the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in his book The Satanic Verses.

Mirza Kashif Ali, the president of the schools’ federation, said in a statement it was “clear that Malala has nexus with Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin, and also has alignment with Salman Rushdie’s ideological club”.

“We severely condemned the chapter of the book in which Salman Rushdie’s book has been mentioned as freedom of expression by Malala while referring to father’s views,” Ali said.

He said walks, seminars and press conferences were held to highlight the “I am not Malala” day.

Bangladeshi author Nasrin was forced to flee her homeland in 1994 after radical Muslims accused her of blasphemy over her novel “Lajja” (Shame), in which a Hindu family is persecuted by Muslims.

Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Pakistan also, where it can carry the death penalty.

Malala’s book describes her life under the Taliban’s brutal rule in northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley in the mid-2000s, hints at her ambition to enter Pakistani politics and even describes her father’s brief flirtation with Islamic fundamentalism as a youngster.

The book describes public floggings by the Taliban, their ban on television, dancing and music, and the family’s decision to flee Swat along with nearly one million others in 2009 amid heavy fighting between the militants and Pakistani troops.

Malala, who lives in Britain where she went for treatment after being shot, was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October alongside India’s 60-year-old Kailash Satyarthi for their championing of children’s rights.

DAWN

Reporters Without Borders and the Pakistani NGO Freedom Network condemn the four-year jail sentence that an Afghan court has imposed on Pakistani TV reporter Faizullah Khan for illegally crossing into Afghanistan while researching a story on the Taliban.

Announced on 13 July, the sentence was imposed by a military court in the eastern province of Nangarhar that specializes in threats to internal and external security.

The two organizations question the court’s motives for imposing such a heavy sentence. Was it a message to foreign reporters entering Afghanistan without proper travel documents? Or was it a warning to foreign reporters investigating subjects regarded as “sensitive”?

In either case, Reporters Without Borders and Freedom Network call for this utterly disproportionate sentence to be quashed on appeal.

“Such a sentence for a journalist is scandalous and out of all proportion,” said Iqbal Khattak, the executive director of Freedom Network and Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk. “We suspect the intelligence services of being behind this harsh sentence, and we call on the authorities to explain why a military court was used to try an administrative offence.”

Khattak and Ismaïl added: “We also urge the Afghan justice system to take more account of the role of media and journalists as guardians of public interest, and we call for a more relaxed visa regime for reporters, including the possibility of visas on arrival.”

Khan, who works for the Karachi-based TV station ARY News, was arrested by the Afghan authorities in Nangarhar in April after travelling to Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, to interview Taliban leaders and then suddenly losing contact with his colleagues.

His arrest in Afghanistan was reported by the Pakistani media on 5 May. Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) was subsequently said to suspect him of spying but no formal charge was brought against him.

The issue of the Taliban is often a source of tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with each country accusing the other of being “lax” towards the Taliban or even being directly involved in the terrorist actions that affect both countries.

Afghanistan is ranked 128th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

An Afghan court in eastern Nangarhar province convicted Faizullah Khan, a reporter for the Karachi-based privately owned news channel ARY News, of illegally entering the country and sentenced him last week, ARY News Senior Vice President Ammad Yousaf told CPJ by phone.

Afghan authorities had also accused of Khan of spying, but the three-judge bench dismissed the espionage charge, according to his lawyer, The Express Tribune reported.

Khan had traveled to Peshawar in April to report along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and had been regularly checking in with his colleagues, according to Yousaf. Then he suddenly stopped communicating. A few days later, on April 27, ARY received a call informing the channel that Khan was being detained in a Jalalabad jail, Yousaf told CPJ. Khan had traveled to the region to interview Taliban leaders, news reports said.

“We call on Afghan authorities to immediately release Faizullah Khan,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz. “No journalist should face such a harsh prison term for going about reporting.”

In the days following Khan’s arrest, ARY notified Pakistani officials, who raised concerns with tribal chiefs and officials in Afghanistan, but were unsuccessful at gaining Khan’s release, Yousaf told CPJ.

An appeal in the case has been filed, he said.

Committee to Protect Journalists

Faizullah Khan, a reporter for Karachi-based ARY News, was detained by Afghan authorities in eastern Nangarhar province in April this year. Some reports had earlier suggested Faizullah was on assignment to interview Taliban leaders as part of his professional duties.

“A panel of three-judges in eastern Nangarhar province has convicted Faizullah Khan,” a Pakistani embassy official said, while speaking from Kabul via phone.
Faizullah was also accused of spying; however, the bench dropped espionage charges and jailed him for illegal entry to Afghanistan, his Afghan lawyer says.

An Afghan source in Jalalabad, who is privy to the court’s proceedings, said the judges also mentioned Faizullah Khan’s attempt of interviewing the Taliban in the verdict.

An appeal against the conviction will be filed in an Afghan High Court, a source said.

Pakistani embassy in Kabul and the country’s consulate in Jalalabad had been actively involved to help the journalist in the legal battle, the embassy spokesman, Akhtar Munir said, talking to The Express Tribune from Kabul.

He said Ambassador Abrar Hussain had held a series of meetings with key ministers and senior officials to secure the release of the journalist. “The embassy will continue efforts to help the Pakistani journalist while using all legal options,” the spokesman said.

Sources said South Asian Free Media Association (Safma) Afghan chapter had been contacted in Kabul to seek its help in the release of the Pakistani journalist. However Safma’s in-charge in Kabul had called for a letter from Safma office-bearers in Pakistan.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) urged the Afghanistan and Pakistan governments to act urgently for safe return of the journalist.

International media groups say both Pakistan and Afghanistan are dangerous regions for journalists to operate with poor safety and security situations and impunity in attacks on journalists.

Express Tribune

NEW YORK: Famous American author and journalist David Rohde, who escaped from Taliban captivity, has said that Pakistan should adopt a both dialogue and offence policy towards Taliban and it seems as if the Pakistani government is adopting the same combination.

The people who believe in dialogue should be treated the same way but the policy of offence should be adopted for those who are not ready to abandon violence.

“Islam preaches peace, Prophet (PBUH) never kidnapped the unarmed people but they (Taliban) do,” David Rohde told a delegation of eight Pakistani journalists currently visiting US. They met at the 19th floor of his office’s meeting room, located in the famous Times Square of New York.

Rohde hit the headlines of international papers when he escaped the detention of the Taliban in 2009 after 7 months of his kidnapping.

He is currently working on a senior position at an international wire service and author of three books, including, “A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides” which he co-authored with his wife Kristen Mulvihill in 2010 containing the details of his kidnapping by Taliban. For his security media at large had blacked out the news of Rohde’s kidnapping. On the black out policy of his kidnapping he said that it helped as Taliban want such news hit the headlines. “I have been stopped by my family to go back to Afghanistan or Pakistan but I miss my days in Pakistan,” said David Rohde while taking a deep breath.

The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist said that Pakistani media is doing a great job. He observed that the landscape of Pakistan is changing rapidly by the development of media which is progressing each day.

While recalling his first hand experience with Taliban, Rohde recalled that Taliban were jubilant when there was a blast in a Peshawar mosque. He said that Taliban told him that they (Taliban) think that the people who accept the “infidel governments” are also infidels so they have no mercy for them.

He shared that he was actually kidnapped by the Haqqani network.

He wanted to interview a local Taliban commander Abu Tayyab who was already interviewed by couple of international news organizations but when he reached the given place with the help of local journalist friend Tahir, he was kidnapped and handed over to Badruddin Haqqani, who also used to take him for “picnic” in the mountains of Tribal Areas of Pakistan where he had been shifted.

He recalled that Badruddin used to call him a “jasoos” (spy) and would let him practise gun firing , just to check if I knew how to use the guns or not. He said one day he escaped along his Afghan journalist fellow and reached to nearest Army check post, where soldiers pointed their guns towards him. He said that his fellow journalist loudly introduced themselves and told the soldiers that they were kidnapped by Baitullah Mehsud. He admired the sharpness of his Afghan journalist colleague saying that he knew that Pakistani army was fighting with Baitullah Mehsud so they would not harm them.

He recalled that a young Pakistan Army Captain Nadeem Khattak reached the spot and gave him a Pakistan Tele Communication (PTCL) card to make telephone calls. “I made a call to my home but phone was on messaging later my mother in law picked up the phone and she was very angry as I had gone to Afghanistan only after two months of marriage,” David told.

He added that he told her mother-in-law that he was in Miranshah and escaped from the Taliban kidnappers. He lauded the positive role played by the Pakistan Army Captain and added that later he was taken to Islamabad by helicopter from where he flew to US.

David was happy to see Pakistani journalists in America and said that Pakistani media is changing rapidly. He said that there are problems of bias sometimes but more speech is the answer of biased speech.

The News

ISLAMABAD: Media persons staged a walkout from the Press gallery of the National Assembly on Monday in protest against the killing of three Express News staffers in Karachi. The boycott was jointly announced by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), National Press Club (NPC) and Parliamentary Reporters Association.

NPC President Shehyar Khan, while pointing to fresh threats to the media, asked for the government’s response over the killing of three Express News staffers.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid told the protesting journalists that the government shared their grief and concerns. He added that the prime minister has constituted a committee to look into the matter. The committee would meet on January 31, he added. Representatives of the journalist community would also be invited to the meeting.

However, the minister said there was no quick fix to the problem. “Journalists will remain unsafe even if every single one is provided with a bullet-proof vehicle. This issue cannot be addressed unless all of Pakistan is safe,” he said.

He said there should be consensus on some issues and those in opposition should be labelled ‘from other side’. Rashid said Taliban did not acknowledge democracy and considered it un-Islamic and those who have soft corner for them should be addressed.

“We have to overcome the divide within us as Pakistan is being attacked from within,” he added, ‘we all, including politicians, army and law enforcement agencies were unsafe’.

Express Tribune

The officials of Matani Police Station said the militants had planted explosives near the CD shop owned by one Israruddin that went off in the midnight. The CD shop was destroyed while four nearby shops were damaged in the explosion.

Locals said the militants also threw a piece of paper at the site of the blast, warning all those associated with the business to pack up or get ready to face the music. “All those spreading vulgarity and obscenity are warned to stop business or get ready to face the consequences,” the piece of paper found at the spot said.

CD shops were bombed near the Bacha Khan Chowk last month. Hundreds of CD shops were bombed in different parts of Peshawar and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata during the last many years, forcing a large number of people associated with the business to close their shops and look for other sources to earn livelihood.

Besides CD shops, a number of shops selling songs, videos and other stuff for cellular phones have been warned in the recent months to stop selling the items or they will be bombed. Many such shops and cabins in the Peshawar Saddar and city areas were closed after the warning and bombing of a cellular phone market in Hashtnagri last month that killed one person and injured over 20 others.

Source: The News

Some 60 shopkeepers received letters in the post ordering them to burn the offending stock, including memory cards and speakers for MP3 players, and stick to selling only mobile phones and essential accessories. DVD and CD shops have in the past been bombed by militants who deemed the businesses “un-Islamic”.

In one of the letters, seen by AFP, militants wrote: “Do not compel us to send a bomber… stop this shameless business in one week and burn the shameful stuff. Just sell mobile phones, batteries and chargers.

“Your markets have become centres of shamelessness. Our mission is to stop this shameless business and if you do not stop it yourself then we will make an example of you and your market.”

Officials and police acted quickly to minimise the threat from would-be bombers.

“We have immediately closed down the shops doing ring tones and video clips business, after about 60 shopkeepers received threatening letters from Taliban by mail,” local market association secretary general Shakil Ahmed told AFP.

He said parking spots for motorcycles — which are sometimes packed with explosives and detonated — had been moved away from the market and police had been asked to increase security. Senior police official Faisal Murad said patrols had been stepped up around the market in Peshawar, which sits on the edge of Pakistan’s tribal region — a haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The Taliban has increased its campaign of violence in recent months, leading to fears that violence could mar a general election scheduled to take place by mid-May. Last month the group proposed talks with Islamabad but the government insists the militants must declare a ceasefire before coming to the negotiating table — a condition militants have rejected.

Source: The News