Mediapersons covering the budget session of the National Assembly staged a walkout from the press gal1ery to protest the killing of a journalist in Haripur.Minister of State for Information Marryam Aurangzeb visited the press lounge and assured the protesting mediapersons that the family of the deceased journalist, Baksheesh Elahi, would be compensated under the Prime Minister`s Fund for Journalists. The federal government will alsotakesteps for the education of his two children.The journalists demanded a judicial inquiry into the murder and informed the minister about the difficult environment they had been dischargingtheir duties.The minister told the protesters that maintenance of peace falls under the domain of the provincial government which should hold an inquiry into the matter. In case the KP government wanted help from the centre, the federal government is ready to form a commission, she added.After the assurance of the minister, the journalists returned to the press gallery.Baksheesh Elahi was a senior journalist of a local newspaper has been killed by unknown assailants in the Haripur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Baksheesh Allai who was the bureau chief of The K2 Times was on his way home when motorcyclists intercepted him on a main road and spread him with bullets, successfully fleeing the scene in its aftermath.Mohammad Arshad, the brother of the slain journalist filed an FIR against unknown assailants, stating that Baksheesh Allai and his entire family had no enmities.
The journalist’s fraternity placed the body of the victim at Panian square at GT road and blocked it to all sort of traffic for many hours demanding the killers’ arrests.Shahid Chaudhry, the president of the Abbottabad Press Club and ex-member of the executive body of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists led the protest.The district police officer Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari held talks with protesting journalists and convinced them to end the protest.Chaudhry asserted that the journalists’ fraternity across the Hazara region would observe protests and take out rallies to condemn the cold-blooded murder of their colleague. Pakistan has become most vulnerable place for working journalists and so many journalists have lost their lives in the line of their duty. The government and relevant institutions have so for failed to ensure the protection and safety of journalists. This is another attack against the journalist fraternity and by extension, free speech in the country.The victim’s family claims that he had no enmity and this is not surprising that journalists are usually killed because of their work and not because of other personal issues.Beyond directly targeting journalists and media houses for reporting the truth, state institutions are not even taking the very tangible threat seriously. The government should conduct through investigation to ascertain the root causes of this murder and culprits must be apprehended and brought to justice.The compensation should be announced for his family. Also steps should be taken to ensure the safety of journalists to avoid such incidents in future.
