A senior Pakistani journalist was shot dead by unidentified gunmen near his home in the country’s volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, authorities said.
According to a police official, Khalil Jibran, who works for the private news channel ‘Khyber News’, was targeted by miscreants on a motorbike on Tuesday while he was riding to his home with a friend in Landi Kotal, Khyber district.
The official stated that the journalist’s car broke down near his home, and the gunmen surrounded him, dragged him out, and started fire.
“Jibran, who was also the former president of the Landi Kotal Press Club, died on the spot and his lawyer friend was injured in the attack”, the official continued.
The perpetrators fled the scene.
Authority went on to say that Jibran has also received terrorist threats. Meanwhile, the killed journalist was buried in his hometown of Sultan Khel after other journalists staged a protest near the Khyber-Pak-Afghan highway, where Jibran’s body was being stored.
Protesters asked that the journalist’s murderer be apprehended quickly. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has directed officials to arrest the killers of the journalist as soon as possible.
The Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AEMEND) strongly condemned the murder and urged the government to bring Jibran’s perpetrators to justice.
In a statement, the association chastised higher authorities for failing to prevent such crimes, citing reports of torture, abductions, and threats against journalists around the country.
Nasrullah Gadani, a Sindhi newspaper journalist, was critically injured last month when he was attacked by unidentified motorbike riders near Korai Goth. He later died from his wounds.
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