ISLAMABAD - An unknown gunman shot at and injured former Chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and veteran journalist Absar Alam in the federal capital on Tuesday. 

Police sources said the incident took place at a park in F-11/2 sector Tuesday evening when an unidentified persons opened fire at him, the sources said. The injured journalist was later rushed to a private hospital in a car by some of his friends where doctors pulled out bullet from his body after a surgery, the sources mentioned.

“At around 5:40pm, an assailant, aged 27/28, middle height and wearing bluish clothes opened fire at 50-year old Absar Alam with a 30 Bore pistol when he was on an evening walk in a park located in Street 20 of F-11/2 in Islamabad. After launching attack, the gunman fled on foot,” disclosed a police source.

Capital police chief Qazi Jamil Ur Rehman also took notice of the incident and formed a high level inquiry committee under the supervision of DIG Operations Afzal Ahmed Kausar and SSP Investigation Atta Ur Rehman, according to a police spokesman. SSP Operations Dr Syed Mustafa Tanvir shared with The Nation that the attacker had fired a single bullet from behind that hit into ribs of Absar Alam.

Doctors pull out bullet from Absar’s body after surgery

“Several police team including the experts of forensic laboratory have visited the crime scene and collected the evidences besides recording the statements of eyewitnesses and obtaining CCTV footage to identify the attacker,” he said. “Absar Alam has received a single bullet injury into ribs that was pulled out by the surgeons during an operation. Now his condition is stable,” said a senior doctor of Kalsoom International Hospital during an interaction with media men who assembled in the hospital to enquire about the health of former Chairman PEMRA. “I am shot and injured by someone and the ballet pierced into my ribs,” Absar said in a video recorded during his shifting to the hospital by his friends. Journalists’ community has widely condemned the attack. Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has condemned the attack on Absar Alam and ordered inquiry into the incident.  Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry also denounced the firing on Absar Alam and asked the police to probe into matter and arrest the culprit involved in the crime.