Press freedom under attack: Journalist Bakshish Elahi murdered in Haripur

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 11 June 2017

Bakshish Elahi, Bureau Chief of K-2 Times, was shot and killed by unidentified assailants in Haripur. His murder highlights the alarming trend of violence against journalists in Pakistan.

Summary

ISLAMABAD – Bakshish Elahi, Bureau Chief of K-2 Times in Haripur (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) was shot dead Sunday by unidentified gunmen.

Initial reports said he was on duty when the assailants struck.

Elahi was a member Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ-Dastoor).

The union condemned the cold-blooded murder and called for immediate arrest of the killers.

The funeral prayers were to be held Sunday at 5:00pm in Haripur.

Elahi is the fifth media person to be killed this year in Pakistan. In January Muhammad Jan Sumalani of Daily Qudrat and Brahvi language Daily Talaar was shot dead by unknown assailants in Kalat (Balochistan).

In February, Taimoor Abbas, 22, of Samaa TV, got killed in a Taliban attack on the channel's news-gathering van in Karachi.

In May armed robbers gunned down Abdul Razzaque, a Chunian correspondent for ARY News Television in an attempted robbery in Pattoki, Kasur (Punjab) and on the same day, hours later, Amir Shakeel, a 35-year old designer with Nawa-i-Waqt was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Lahore.

KEY POINTS:

• Bakshish Elahi was killed on duty by unidentified gunmen.
• He was a member of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
• This incident marks the fifth murder of a media person in Pakistan this year.
• The union condemned the murder and demanded immediate actions against the killers.
• Elahi's funeral prayers were held in Haripur on the same day.