Taliban plan attacks on media: report

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published 13 years ago

ISLAMABAD: Hakimullah Mehsud of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has directed his men to target media organizations for criticizing them following the attack on child activist Malala Yousufzai.

BBC Urdu, quoting a Ministry of Interior official it did not name, said a telephonic conversation between Mehsud and his operative Nadeem Abbas had been intercepted by intelligence agencies.

In the conversation, Mehsud directs his man to attack international and national media organizations and journalists in major cities including Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi.

The Taliban were severely criticized for shooting and wounding Malala, 14, in Mingora (Swat) on October 9 and two other girls on a school bus as they headed home.

The government has directed the relevant authorities to provide security to media organizations that have also been threatened by the Taliban through emails.

In June four Taliban gunmen stormed the Karachi headquarters of Aaj TV that left a security guard and another employee injured – an attack the TTP said was carried out because of the channel’s ‘biasness’.