Pakistan Government Must Order Full Inquiry Into Murder

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) demands that Pakistan’s Government launch a swift and full inquiry into the murder of a veteran Afghan journalist in Pakistan yesterday.

 

Peshawar-based journalist Janullah Hashimzada was shot dead by four unidentified gunmen in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as he travelled from Afghanistan’s Eastern Nangahar Province to Peshawar, in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

 

The minivan in which he was travelling was ambushed near Jamrud in the Khyber tribal district. Two gunmen entered the van and shot Hashimzada four times, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), an IFJ affiliate.

 

Another passenger and Afghan national, Ali, suffered injuries and is reported to be in a serious condition.

 

The IFJ urgently calls on Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments to order local authorities to conduct an immediate and full investigation, and to ensure the killers are brought to justice.

 

Local authorities should be warned not to make the same mistake as in February, when police failed to conduct a prompt inquiry into the murder of journalist Mussa Khankel in the Swat Valley.

 

An independent inquiry by the PFUJ into Khankel’s murder concluded that his killers could have been caught and brought to justice had security forces acted quickly, rather than delaying their inquiries until the PFUJ launched its own investigation.

 

“Pakistan’s highest authorities must take quick action to overcome the failings of local authorities to properly investigate previous murders of journalists in Pakistan,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.

 

“Murders and attacks against journalists are being conducted with impunity. Pakistan’s Government must act on its obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1738 (2006) to actively protect journalists and media workers working in war zones, in accordance with their status as civilians under international law.”

 

While the motive for killing Hashimzada remains unclear, there are reports that the attack was intended to silence independent journalists working in Pakistan’s tribal and conflict zones.

 

As was the case with Khankel, Hashimzada’s reporting was said to have upset key players in the region. Hashimzada was reported to have had good ties with Pakistani officials and senior journalists in Peshawar, and he was known to be critical of insurgents operating under the banner of the Taliban.

 

However, one colleague said some of his reporting was not acceptable to the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

Hashimzada, 37, worked as a freelance journalist, mainly contributing to Pajhwok Afghan News and Shamshad TV in Afghanistan, the Wahdat and Sahar Pashto language newspapers published from the NWFP, as well as Associated Press (AP) and Al-Arabia TV.

 

He also had been working with the Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA), an IFJ affiliate, to set up an AIJA regional office in Peshawar, in order to assist Afghan journalists and media professionals working in Pakistan, as well as Pakistani journalists.

 

AIJA President Rahimullah Samander said the death of Hashimzada was an enormous loss for the Afghan journalists’ community, and the association’s offices in Afghanistan’s eastern four provinces were investigating the murder.

 

The AIJA has called on Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene with counterparts in Pakistan and request assurance of a full and immediate investigation. 

 

The PFUJ also strongly condemned the murder. It questioned the Government’s indifference to attacks on media personnel and urged it to fulfil its constitutional obligation to provide safety and protection to journalists and to bring their killers to justice.

 

In the case of Khankhel, a reporter for The News International and GEO News, his bullet-riddled body was found on February 18 after he went missing in the Swat Valley that day.

 

The PFUJ conducted an investigation into Khankhel’s murder after local authorities failed to initiate their own inquiry. The PFUJ reported that a five-member police team headed by a high-ranking official did not begin its investigation into the murder until February 27, the day the PFUJ team visited the valley. The area in which Khankhel’s body was recovered was not cordoned off at the time and no search operation was conducted.

 

No one has been charged with Khankhel’s murder.

 

However, with a return to relative peace in Swat in the past month, the administration of the local police force is being reorganised, and the PFUJ and local journalists are anticipating a full inquiry into the killing.

 

 For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919

 

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries worldwide