On Wednesday, armed robbers gunned down Abdul Razzaque, a Chunian correspondent of ARY News television in an attempted robbery in Pattoki, Kasur in Punjab. Razzaque was killed when the assailants opened fired on him and Muqadar Hussain after stopping their car. Hussain was taken to hospital but Razzaque died at the scene.  

ARY News condemned the brazen attack and expressed condolences with bereaved family of Razzaque. 

Just hours later in Punjab in the city of Lahore, Amir Shakeel, a 35-year old designer at Nawa-i-Waqt daily was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. Two motorcyclists opened the fire on Shakeel and fled the scene. He died on the way to hospital. Police said they suspected an old enmity or personal grudge as the motive behind the killing.

A few days earlier, on May 11, in Karachi, Amin Yousef, the resident editor Nawa-i-Waqt daily was targeted in a day-light robbery. Yousef, the former general secretary of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists was on his way to his office with his daughter, when gunmen on a motorbike intercepted his car, stealing his mobile phone and cash at gunpoint. Neither Amin nor his daughter was injured in the attack. 

The IFJ extends condolence to the families of Razzaque and Shakeel and stands in solidarity with our colleagues in Pakistan.

The IFJ general secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: “The IFJ strongly condemns the killing of media workers Abdul Razzaque and Amir Shakeel in Punjab, Pakistan. Pakistan is a dangerous country for journalists, and the reigning impunity in the crimes against journalists is making the situation increasingly dangerous. The IFJ urges the Pakistan authorities to immediately arrest and punish the killers to ensure justice to slain media staffs.”

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