Pakistani Journalists Still a Soft Target for Taliban

World Press Freedom Day: The Worst Year Ever for Pakistani Journalists

Civilized nations across the globe are marking the World Press Freedom Day. We too are making shallow speeches on this day. But today Pakistani journalists are more insecure than ever. Every year hundreds of journalists lose their precious lives worldwide. It may be the war zones of Iraq or the battlefields of Afghanistan. But in recent years, we have seen that Pakistan’s tribal areas and adjacent Frontier regions have become the most hostile spots for journalists. First in the line are those journalists who are working for the Western media, and especially the US media.

Despite Pakistan’s government efforts to deploy around 100,000 regular army in its volatile tribal regions and establish its writ, Taliban militants have turned out to be still the most powerful in that area. They have their own Islamic laws, and now they have even established their courts in some parts of the tribal belt along Afghan border. They call them Sharia courts. They have got the power to implement their decisions and execute their policies. They have now a broader network, called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP - Pakistan’s Taliban Movement] which has its presence and influence across the country.

Taliban in general, love to talk to media. But they want to hear from the media what they like. They have their own media cells which are not only publishing newspapers, magazines and other propaganda pamphlets but are also regularly monitoring the international media channels, especially their radio broadcasts. They focus their attention more on the radio because it is the most influential medium in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions. It has two main reasons: majority of the people in that area are illiterate and secondly, electricity is not available in most of the area. People rely on radio and Taliban tries to exploit that medium in their favor. However, if a broadcaster or print journalist goes against the Taliban agenda, then he or she is on the hit-list for them. In the past few years, several journalists were kidnapped, killed or tortured by Taliban militants.

Soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and ensuing War on Terror in Afghanistan and then in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the killing and torture of journalists have increased tremendously. Journalists are the soft and easiest target for Taliban. The first big casualty in this regard was the killing of two tribal journalists, Amir Nawab Khan and Allah Noor Wazir, who were shot dead with indiscriminate firing in Wana, headquarter of South Waziristan tribal agency. They, along with a group of other journalists, were returning from attending a reception that saw Taliban militant Baitullah Mahsud surrender before the military authorities and sign a peace agreement in the town of Sararogha, South Waziristan. Two of their journalist colleagues, Anwar Shakir and Zardad Khan, got injuries in this tragic incident. A wave of terror spread across the journalists covering the War on Terror in tribal areas. They asked the government to provide them security and protested against such brutal killings of journalists in a broad day-light of Wana Bazar. But the bad day had just started for media people. Every second day got worsened. Another journalist, Hayatullah Khan was killed in North Waziristan. But this was, perhaps, not enough. Later his widow was also killed. This was to silence the only protesting voice that she had raised in the international media. These gruesome murders were followed by the killing of a Bajur-based journalist Dr Noorul Hakeem, who was running a media campaign to convince the local tribesmen to immunize their children against polio. He was bombed only days after he talked for polio vaccination on VOA and some local media channels. Soon, another journalist Mohammad Ibrahim was also killed in the same Bajur tribal agency. Some media-men were arrested and beaten. Few others like Suhail Qalandar, a Peshawar-based journalist with Daily Express, were fortunate to make good their escape. Mukhtar Ahmad, reporter for the Voice of America was also lucky that got released from the detention of Taliban leaders in South Waziristan on the request of a local tribal Senator and intervention from the then provincial government of Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal [MMA] in the Frontier province. But to his ‘discredit’, he had a tag of working for US radio [VOA], and before that could prove fatal for him, Mukhtar went underground and then was never heard on his radio, up until he re-appeared on VOA but this time from the Washington DC. Later this year, Taliban militants issued a fatwa [religious decree] against him to be killed or captured for his work with the US government and for his ‘propaganda’ [broadcasts] against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. But despite these death-warnings, Mr Mukhtar had the luck and chance to keep continue his journalistic profession from abroad. While some other journalists were totally disappeared from the scene. They were no less in talent and enthusiasm from their other fellow journalists but they were left with no option other than to say good-bye to their journalistic profession or shift to other cities. But it could not give them relief for long, as now Taliban have established a strong network across the country in Pakistan. In the recent years, they have picked and butchered the ‘dis-obeying’ journalists from anywhere in the country. And so far, the government is only a spectator to this gory game, and has lost its writ to Taliban fighters.

Here is a brief chronology of killings and threats for Pashtun journalists from Taliban militants:

§ February 2005: Two tribal journalists - Amir Nawab Khan, 32, and Allah Noor Wazir, 28 -- were shot dead by Taliban militants in Wana, while they were on their way home after attending a Peace Pact signing ceremony between militant commander Baitullah Mahsud and the government in Sararogha, Waziristan. Amir Nawab Khan was a cameraman with the APTN- US TV news agency, and Allah Noor Wazir, a reporter with the Pashto language television channel Khyber TV.

§ June 2006: Tribal journalist Hayatullah Khan was killed in North Waziristan by suspected militants. He was working with a Western media agency, the EPA. Later, Khan’s younger brother Bashir Khan was killed and then in 2007 his wife Mehrunisa was also murdered by the Taliban militants.

§ September 2007: Tribal reporter Dr Noor Hakim Khan was killed when suspected Taliban militants blew up the vehicle that he, along with some tribal elders and government officials, was travelling in while going to convince the tribesmen to immunize their children against polio.

§ September 2007: Anwar Saleh, A Pashtun-Afghan journalist was killed in Pakistan’s Frontier Province was killed by militants when he was there for a personal visit.

§ December 2007: Kamil Mashadi, a journalist attached with TV One was killed by unknown militants in Peshawar

§ March 2008: The Chief of Jihadist group, Lashkar-e-Islam, Mangal Bagh, issued a fatwa of death punishments on his illegal FM radio against two journalists: Mukhtar Ahmad of the Voice of America and Nasrullah Afridi of Daily Mashriq.

Threats from Taliban militants to print and electronic media during the last few months:

§ Peshawar-based local English newspaper, The Frontier Times, received a threatening letter from Taliban militants asking its staff to ‘correct themselves’, otherwise they will be blown up.

§ National Urdu Daily, Aaj Kal, and its sister publication, Daily Times, received threatening phone calls from Taliban militants of Red Mosque.

§ CNBC’s Urdu Chapter for Pakistan, SAFMA TV Channel, was called a mouth-piece of Jews and Christians, used against the Mujahideen.

Annual State of Pakistan Media Report for the year May 2007 – 08, released by US-based Internews Network, on the eve of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, says that last year was the worst year ever for Pakistani journalists and media. During this period, at least 15 journalists were killed, 357 arrested or abducted, 123 assaulted or injured, and 154 threatened or harassed. There were at least 154 cases where journalists were the targets of intimidation, including threats on the phone, delivered in writing by mail or other stark warnings such a placing live bullets on journalists’ belongings.

France-based journalists’ rights organization, RSF [Reporters Sans Frontiers] has stated in its annual report that the year 2007- 08 was an annus horribilis for journalists in Pakistan. The report says the offensive by Islamists groups have made the lives of journalist miserable. They killed four family members of a local journalist, Din Mohammad, and kidnapped three other members of his family. Similarly the home of another journalist, Nasrullah Afridi, was targeted in a grenade attack. But these offensives by the Islamists groups are not limited to tribal areas. In June 2007, a religious leader at the Red Mosque in the Capital City Islamabad pronounced a fatwa against Zubair Kasuri, editor of the Octane, a fashion magazine. Similar is the case with Ahmad Rashid and Najam Sethi, Lahore-based renowned journalists who have got death-threats from Islamists for their writings on the issues of Taliban and al-Qaeda. Now the recent increasing trends in suicide bombings have further jeopardized the lives of journalists covering events of national and international importance.

Still the more worrying factor is that situation in Pakistan is further worsening for independent journalists in Pakistan. The government has lost its writ to the increasing influence of Taliban militants, and the Islamists groups are now operating across the country without any check from the government. The journalist community in Pakistan has been repeatedly asking the government of Pakistan as well as the international community to provide them safety on the face of fatal threats from jihadist and Islamist groups, but so far the government and international organizations have proved unable to provide them any security.

The author of this article, Mr Mehboob Ali, is a Pakistan-based correspondent for Geo TV. He regularly writes on the rights of journalists covering war-front zones.