Geneva: Press Emblem Campaign, the global media safety and rights body, expresses utter shock over the relentless murder of journalists in Pakistan, as the South Asian nation has lost its seventh scribe to assailants this year. Condemning the gunning down of Khalil Afridi Jibran (55), a television journalist of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on 18 June 2024, PEC demands a high-level probe into his murder, and nab the culprits to be punished under the law.
According to local Pak media outlets, the senior journalist was associated with the privately owned Pashto-language news channel Khyber TV, which is influential in Pakistan’s north-western province. Khalil, also a popular civil society activist, was targeted by unidentified gunmen in the night hours as he was returning home after daily work in Landi Kotal town. The former president of Landi Kotal Press Club died on the spot. Family and friends claim that Khalil used to receive threats from miscreants for some months. Local journalists organized a protest demonstration before his burial.
“Khalil Afridi Jibran becomes the 55th journalist to be killed this year around the world. Unfortunately Pakistan continues to lose journalists to perpetrators with impunity and thus emerges as a most dangerous country for media persons in the recent past. “We extend moral support to the family members and colleagues in their fight for justice and urge Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur to do the needful,” said Blaise Lempen, president of PEC (https://pressemblem.ch/pec-news.shtml).
PEC’s south Asia representative Nava Thakuria revealed that since 1 January this year, prior to Khalil, Pakistan witnessed the killing of journalists; namely, Nasrullah Gadani (from Sindh province), Kamran Dawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mehar Ashfaq Siyal (Punjab), Maulana Mohammad Siddique Mengal (Balochistan), Jam Saghir Ahmad Lar (Punjab) and Tahira Nosheen Rana (Punjab). Its neighbor India witnessed the murder of television journalist Ashutosh Shrivastava, who worked for nationalist channel Sudarshan News and was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh.