Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Unidentified gunmen killed a senior journalist Khalil Jibran near his residence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Landi Kotal town, Geo News reported on Wednesday.
Jibran who works with a private news channel was targeted by unidentified miscreants on a motorcycle when he was heading towards his residence with his friend Sajjad Advocate, District Police Officer (DPO) Khyber Salim Abbas said.
The journalist’s car developed a fault near his home when the gunmen surrounded him, dragged him out of his vehicle and opened fire at him, the DPO said, adding the incident took place in the Mazreena area in the vicinity of Landi Kotal Police Station.
According to the police officer, Jibran, who was also former president of the Landi Kotal Press Club, died on the spot and Sajjad got injured while the culprits fled from the scene.
The body was shifted to a Landi Kotal hospital for post-mortem.
DPO Abbas claimed that Jibran had also received threats from terrorists.
KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur took notice of the incident and ordered authorities concerned to immediately arrest the culprits behind the journalist’s killing.
In a statement, the Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AEMEND) criticised the higher authorities’ failures to stop such incidents as journalists were continuously facing torture, abductions and threats across the country.
Last month, another journalist from a Sindhi newspaper, Nasrullah Gadani, was targeted by unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants near Korai Goth, 12 kilometres from Mirpur Mathelo, leaving him seriously wounded.
Gadani was, at the time of the unfortunate incident, riding his motorcycle. Following the attack, police shifted him to Civil Hospital Mirpur Mathelo, where he received emergency medical aid and was then sent to Rahim Yar Khan for surgery.
Later, he was shifted to Karachi via an air ambulance for better treatment, with the Sindh government announcing to bear all of his medical costs.
However, even shifting him to a better hospital could not bear fruit as he succumbed to his wounds around three days later.
(With Agency Inputs)
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