NEW YORK - The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based independent watchdog body, Monday urged Pakistani authorities to immediately investigate the murder of Rehmatullah Abdi, a journalist who was shot to death in Balochistan on Sunday.
“We demand that the Pakistani government conduct a thorough investigation to determine a motive and bring the killers to justice,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, said in a statement. “Unpunished attacks on journalists are effectively silencing news coverage and depriving the public of important information about the conflict in Balochistan.”
Abid, the second journalist, from the same TV to be killed this year, was gunned down by unidentified persons on a motorcycle in Panjgur District, about 375 miles (600 kilometers) from Quetta, the provincial capital.
CPJ said it is investigating the case to determine if he was killed because of his reporting.
Another of their reporter, Mukarram Khan Aatif, was killed by two gunmen in January 2012 outside Peshawar. A Taliban spokesman said the group took responsibility for the killing.
With five journalists killed in direct relation to their work this year, Pakistan ranks as the third deadliest country for journalists in 2012, CPJ said. In 2010 and 2011, the country was ranked the deadliest in the world for journalists. Pakistan ranks 10th on CPJ’s global Impunity Index, which identifies countries where journalists are murdered regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes, according to CPJ.