In Balochistan Violence Continues to Target
Journalists
03.10.2014QUETTA, Pakistan -- Journalism has become one of the most dangerous
professions in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, where 38
journalists have been killed since 2008.
Habibur Rahman Taseer, a stringer for Deusche Welle, is among the latest
victims of violence and intimidation against media workers.
"Unknown people phoned me last month and threatened to kill me.
They also called my journalist friends and told them that I was a suspicious
person," he told RFE/RL’s Gandhara website. "They said that they
worked for an [unnamed] organization which considered our radio station
suspicious, and that my reporting violated their policies."
Taseer said that the callers repeatedly accused him of working for a
foreign intelligence service. "'This is why we will not spare you. We will
kill you,' I was told repeatedly," he said.
In early September, days after the threats were made, Taseer, 38, left
Balochistan's capital, Quetta, for his native Ghazni province in central
Afghanistan. "When they threatened to harm my children, I saw no point in
informing the police and hastily left," he said.
"They told me where my eighth-grade son and my daughter, who is in
the first grade, went to schools," he said. "So I left Quetta for the
sake of my children's safety."
Only days before on August 28, two journalists and a fellow office
worker were shot dead in Quetta. Irshad Mastoi, Abdur Rasool, and
Muhammad Younas worked for the local news agency, Online.
Shahzada Zulfiqar, a senior journalist in Balochistan, says that
authorities have so far failed to make a single arrest in the murder of a
journalist. He added that members of Balochistan's police force are reluctant
to investigate the killings because of fear that it would imperil their
security.
"Without the help of the army and the intelligence services, it
will be very difficult for the police to nab a single killer," he told
Gandhara. "Those involved in killing journalists are very powerful. They
are not common criminals. Such groups are behind sophisticated targeted
assassinations and terrorist attacks. They are beyond the reach of the
police."
Balochistan, a vast, resource-rich region, has been the scene of a
violent, separatist insurgency and sectarian strife since 2004. Thousands of
secessionist rebels, civilians, and soldiers have died in the conflict with
secular, ethnic Baluch nationalists.
In addition, more than 1,000 Shi'ite Muslims have been killed in attacks
by hardline Sunni factions. Amid such lawlessness, criminality has spiked and
murders and kidnappings have reached unprecedented numbers.
Zulfiqar said that separatist organizations such as the Baloch
Liberation Front and Baloch Liberation Army have claimed responsibility for
some of the 27 journalists killed in targeted assassinations since 2007.
Many of the other murders remain unexplained, or are attributed to the other
side.
"The relatives of these journalists claim that intelligence services,
or militant groups nurtured by them to counter the Baloch separatists, are
responsible for killing their sons or brothers," he said.
Sayed Ali Shah, a Balochistan correspondent for the English-language
daily "Dawn," says that reporting on Baluch separatist violence and
the presence of Afghan Taliban in the region have been considered red lines for
Balochistan's journalists for a long time, but in recent years covering even
routine, local issues can prove deadly.
"Reporting ordinary news, such as reporting one tribal leader or
politician speaking against another, can land you into trouble," he told
Gandhara. "There are so many powerful people here that if they kidnap or
harm a journalist, the state's security institutions are not capable of helping.
Apart from reporting on sensitive issues, we cannot even report the true
picture of our society, officials, and government organizations."
Jan Mohammad Buledi, spokesman for the province’s top official, Chief
Minister Abdul Malik, says that their administration is committed to protect
journalists in Balochistan by deploying security guards at media offices.
"We are investigating the people responsible for harming
journalists and are also looking into the factors behind such acts," he
said. "It is difficult to investigate the murders that are not claimed by
known militant groups. It takes time to uncover people involved in such
murders."
Asad Shah, a senior police officer in charge of investigating violence
against journalists, says their efforts have yet to show results. "We have
uncovered the way journalists are killed and kidnapped, but we have to unmask
the people involved in such attacks," he said.
But journalists in the province are not optimistic and have resorted to
protests. During the past months they have held numerous demonstrations, and
waged a week-long hunger strike in front of the parliament in Quetta demanding
that the government provide them security and investigate attacks on
journalists.
Irfan Saeed, president of the Balochistan Union of Journalists, says the
provincial authorities and the central government are not serious about
addressing the violence.
"Four months ago the government announced a judicial commission to
probe the murders of our colleagues in Balochistan," he said. "But
the idea remains buried in government files and we have yet to see any
results."
Abubakar Siddique wrote this report based on reporting by Barakwal
Myakhel from Quetta, Balochistan.
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