Early arrest of senior journalist’s murderers demanded  * Govt asked to expedite investigation
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Journalists staged a protest demonstration in front of the camp office of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club on Thursday and criticised the government for its failure to arrest murderers of senior journalist Ismail Malik, who was killed on November 1 last year. They were also critical of slow pace of the investigation in the case.
The protesting journalists, who were carrying banners inscribed with slogans ‘stop violence against media’, ‘ensure freedom of press’ and ‘arrest the murderers’, demanded early arrest of the culprits and urged the government to make the investigations public. They said the journalists would go to any extent to expose the murderers and to bring factual reports to the surface.
Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Secretary General Mazhar Abbass said the slow investigation had made the journalists to assume that the state-run institutions were involved in the murder. He asked the government to expedite the investigation process to arrest the culprits.
Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) President Afzal Butt condemned negligence of the authorities concerned and demanded constitution of a committee of journalists to press the administration to speed up the investigation. He said, “No stone will be left unturned to press the government in this regard.”
Butt said the government agencies had completed investigation into the murder of a foreign journalist within two weeks, but nothing had been done for 24 local journalists killed during the last seven years.
Senior journalist Mian Sohail Iqbal alleged that police and the state-run agencies were behind the murder of Ismail Malik as they had twisted the facts that could lead to arrest of culprits.
The speakers lauded the services of late Ismail Malik in the field of journalism and said he was committed to his profession. Earlier the journalists offered Fateh for the departed soul. Home | Islamabad |
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