Malik Ismail's murder still a mystery

Malik Ismail's murder still a mystery

Kaswar Klasra

ISLAMABAD: The federal capital police can not solve the mystery of Malik Ismail's murder, a senior journalist who was brutally killed by some unidentified people nine months ago. The instigators say that there was no immediate information about the culprits and the motive behind the murder which has shocked the journalist community already concerned about increasing intimidation to the journalists. After brief analysis of the federal capital police's performance, one can easily assume that their only purpose is to solve high profile murder cases and they were not willing to spare time to tackle cases which fall within the category of low profile cases. Failure of the police in solving the mysterious murder of Malik Ismail has exposed inactiveness of investigation wing of federal capital police. It is fact that crime ratio in Islamabad is comparatively low as compared to rest of the cities but it is also fact that a number of murder cases are still to be solved that are pending with investigation department since months. After analysing the record of 'investigation department' of capital police , it may be assumed that federal capital police takes interest in solving high profile case only but it did not bother to solve murder cases in which deceased belong to low class. Let take example of renowned businessman Ikramullah Khan Khatak who was murdered in Gujranwala by a gang led by a young woman after ensnaring him from Islamabad. It was a blind murder but big bosses of the capital police leave no stone unturned in solving the mystery as the deceased, despite being a renowned businessman, was also brother of an MPA of NWFP assembly having close family relationships with Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao. It was an endeavour on part of the capital police when the personnel engaged in investigating the case, made a major breakthrough and arrested the Islamabad-based young woman for her alleged involvement in the heinous crime. Solving blind murder of Ikramullah Khatak showed the capital police had all of the sources to perform their duties professionally but when we come to see a large number of murder cases, still to be resolved; it is perceived that the police did not bother to tracing out such cases as being low profile. Same is the case with a woman, wife of Muhammad Ejaz, a senior official in PTCL, Industrial area building, who was brutally killed by unknown people, while she was sitting in her flat situated in I-9/3 a year back, in the jurisdiction of Industrial area police station. Even after the passage of more than a year, capital police could not solve the mystery of this murder. The family members of deceased have appealed several times, to police high ups to find his killer and take serious action against him. Despite passage of nine months, capital territory police has failed to trace and arrest the murder. The heinous crime was committed by some unknown criminals in on November 1, Mohammad Ismail, Islamabad bureau chief for the independent news agency, Pakistan Press International (PPI), was found dead near his home in Islamabad. He had been hit on the head with a hard blunt object, sources said. In addition, in Ismail's case, the motive for his killing remains unknown and police have made no arrest in connection with his case Family members of the deceased, based in Attock said that the high ups of Islamabad police are sitting tight on this issue and no progress has been made to trace and arrest the murderer despite lodging FIR. The motive behind the murder is still a mystery, which the police have failed to solve they said. Published in Daily The Post Islamabad Dated: Thursday, August 2, 2007.

"A humble soul" Written by Aamir Yasin, Published in Weekly Pulse November 17-23, 2006.

SC seeks report on torturing journalists F.P. Report

SC seeks report on torturing journalists F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday called for detailed reports of harassments and torture of journalists throughout the country. Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Syed Falak Sher issued the directives on the complaints from the Press Association of Pakistan of the Supreme Court. Association President Syed Muzzamil Hussain and his lawyer Ahmar Bilal Sofi Advocate appeared before the court and submitted that the case of harassment of journalists is not only confined to Karachi but throughout the country. They informed the Supreme Court that the media men belonging to all the four provinces and tribal areas including Rawalpindi-Islamabad are being threatened and harassed and in this situation, they can not discharge their duties freely. A renowned journalist Muhammad Ismail was murdered in Islamabad last year and editor of SANA news agency Shakeel Ahmad Turabi was tortured. Although FIRs have been registered but no progress has been made, they pointed out.

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Source: Daily The Frontier Post
Date: 12.06.2007 Tuesday
www.frontierpost.com.pk

SC seeks record of journalists’ harassment

SC seeks record of journalists’ harassment

By Muhammad Qasim ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday sought the complete record of incidents of harassment and torture of journalists across the country and directed the counsel for journalists to submit the same to the apex court before the next date of hearing. The two-member bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Falak Sher, was hearing a suo moto case initiated on the application of office-bearers of the Press Association of Supreme Court (PAS) about the harassment and intimidation of journalists. Counsel for the PAS Ahmer Bilal Sufi advocate told the bench that incidents of journalists' torture have been reported across the country and not only in Karachi. He said similar incidents were reported in the federal capital and Fata, too, and mentioned the murder of a senior journalist, Malik Ismail, in a congested area of Islamabad. He also submitted that even a year after the murder no headway has been made in Ismail's case. He maintained the cases of torture and harassment of journalists were taken for granted and a number of registered cases have been dumped because of laxity of the authorities concerned. Referring to the recent threats given to an Islamabad-based senior journalist, Shakil Turabi, he said no progress has been made in the case despite the fact that a proper course of action, the registration of FIR, was followed. The counsel told the bench that no other cases of similar nature -- harassment and intimidation of journalists -- were pending in any of the high courts. On previous hearing, June 4, the bench had asked the counsel to confirm tendency of similar cases in the high courts to take up the issue in the light of progress made in those pending petitions. Ikram Chaudhry, counsel for Shakil Turabi, requested the bench to become a party in the case; however, he was asked to file a formal petition that will be clubbed with the suo moto case. The bench, directing the petitioner to file the complete record of the incidents in form of a petition, adjourned the case sine die.

Back | Send this story to Friend | Print Version Source: Daily The News Date: 12.06.2007 Tuesday www.thenews.jang.com.pk

SC seeks separate pleas in journalists’ harassment case

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Share this story! SC seeks separate pleas in journalists’ harassment case ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the counsel for the Press Association of the Supreme Court (PAS) to file single petition for each case of alleged harassment of journalists and specify special redress of grievance, which would make easy for the court while giving relief, reported the Online. Staff Report adds: The SC also sought details of the incidents of alleged harassment and torture of journalists in the next hearing from Advocate Ahmer Bilal Sufi, the counsel for the PAS. An SC bench comprising Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Falak Sher is conducting suo motu proceedings on an application filed by the PAS, requesting the SC to intervene in the incidents of journalists’ harassment. Sufi told the bench that journalists were being harassed not just in Karachi, but also other parts of the country, including Islamabad and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Referring to the murder of journalist Malik Ismail in a busy Islamabad area, Sufi said no headway had been made in the case even after a year. He said cases of journalists were being taken for granted and many of them had been dumped because of the laxity of the authorities. Sufi also mentioned the recent threats hurled at Islamabad-based journalist Shakil Turabi. He said an FIR was registered but the state authorities had made no progress so far. Turabi’s counsel Advocate Muhammad Ikram Chaudhry requested the court to become party to the journalists’ harassment case. The bench asked him to file a formal petition, which it said would be heard along with the suo motu case. Home | National

Internews Pakistan RESOURCE CENTER - MEDIA MONITOR Wednesday May 09, 2007.

Police failed to arrest murderer of journalist
	Almost six months have been passed away of the brutal murder of veteran journalist and former resident editor PPI Islamabad Malik Mummad Ismail but the capital police have failed to show progress in the case. In a press statement Tuesday the sons and brothers of veteran journalist demanded of Prime Minister Shukat Aziz and high ups of capital police for early arrest of murder. (News-5)

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns murder of Muhammad Ismail

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns murder of Muhammad Ismail
Asks for apprehending culprits, pays tributes to slain journalist

Islamabad November 3, 2006: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has expressed shock over the murder of journalist Muhammad Ismail Khan and demanded arrest of the assailants and punishment in accordance with the law.

In a statement today the former Prime Minster said that the gruesome murder appeared to be targeted killing and most condemnable.

She said that the journalists in Pakistan had come under increasing threats during the military dictatorship and urged the human rights bodies to raise their voice against it.

Paying tributes she said that late Ismail Khan was an upright, fearless and conscientious journalist who was widely admired and respected in the community of journalists for his professionalism and qualities of character.

His assailants may have fled but will never escape retribution, she said.

Mohtarma Bhutto also prayed for eternal rest to the soul of the deceased and patience to the members of the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss with equanimity.

PAKISTAN: Pakistan tops list of journalist killings

Journalists in Pakistan work in fear of harrassment and murder, says SAFMA report

Times of India
Friday, January 12, 2007

Islamabad --- Pakistan has topped the list of abductions and killings of journalists in South Asia during 2006, according to a report released by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA).

Four Pakistani journalists were killed last year, reported Online news agency. One journalist, abducted in December 2005 allegedly by intelligence agencies in Waziristan for an expose, was found dead June 16.

Muneer Ahmed Sangi, a photographer of Sindhi-language daily Kawish and cameraman of TV channel KTN , was shot dead while covering a clash between two tribes in Larkana May 29.

In Dera Ismail Khan, Maqbool Hussain Siyal, district correspondent of Online news agency, was gunned down by unidentified assailants on his way to meeting Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Nawab Azek Sep 14, SAFMA said on Thursday.

The fourth victim was Malik Muhammad Ismail, editor of Pakistan Press International (PPI) in Islamabad. The motive behind his killing could not be ascertained.

Tribal areas, especially Wana and Bajour, have acquired the status of "no-go areas" for journalists where harassment by intelligence agencies due to military operations remained at its peak.

Instead of providing security, law enforcement agencies worked as a big threat to journalists' security and an impediment to their work, the report said.

Assaults on journalists continued, by politicians or law enforcement agencies. A superintendent of police in Peshawar beat up Wahidur Rehman Khalil, a correspondent of the AVT Khyber television channel, while covering the killing of a tribesman.

Omar Soomro, a reporter of Daily Sham , was tortured and humiliated after being kidnapped by armed men. Images of him with a tonsured head and shaven moustache were relayed on a television channel, the report said.

Date Posted: 1/12/2007

Pakistan in Press Freedom Crisis and “Rapidly Skidding Towards Lawlessness”, says IFJ

Pakistan in Press Freedom Crisis and “Rapidly Skidding Towards Lawlessness”, says IFJ
07/11/2006

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned by the rapid disintegration of press freedoms and journalist safety in Pakistan over the last six months, which has seen four journalists killed (with all four cases still unsolved), four journalists detained and tortured by intelligence agencies, the child brothers of two journalists brutally murdered, and scores of other violent incidents and threats to journalists.

Furthermore, the present economic situation for media workers in Pakistan continues to deteriorate, with little job stability and the non-implementation of the Seventh Wage Award ensuing Pakistani journalists do not receive adequate wages.

“The high rate of journalist murders and attacks on freedom of expression, combined with a near zero rate of prosecution for these crimes, indicates Pakistan is skidding rapidly towards lawlessness,” IFJ President Christopher Warren said.

“The current safety and economic situation for journalists in Pakistan is not sustainable, and suggests that media freedom is quickly deteriorating in Pakistan,” Warren said.

“A free and safe media is vital to a healthy, strong and vibrant democracy, and Pakistan will continue to retreat from this goal, unless something is urgently done to protect journalists’ rights and safety,” the IFJ president said.

The IFJ, as the organisation representing more than 500,000 journalists in over 115 countries, has written to General Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, to demand that he take immediate action to rectify this terrible descent into an unsafe and threatened media environment, and to demand a commission of enquiry to investigate all these recent murders, kidnappings, attacks, threats and incidents of torture.

Four journalists murdered in six months
The body of Mohammad Ismail, a senior journalist and bureau chief of Pakistan Press International (PPI), was found with his head completely smashed open, having been struck with a hard and blunt object, in Islamabad on November 1.

Less than six weeks earlier, Maqbool Hussain Sail, correspondent of the news agency On-Line, died on the way to hospital after being shot by unidentified attackers on September 15.

Sail was reportedly on his way to the house of the local leader of the opposition Pakistan People Party when he was shot.

Hayatullah Khan’s body was discovered on Friday June 16, six months after his abduction, which followed his news reports on an explosion that killed senior Al Qaeda member, Maza Rabia.

Munir Ahmed Sangi, cameraman for the Sindhi-language Kawaish Television Network (KTN), was covering a story on a gunfight between members of the Unar and Abro tribes in the town of Larkana, in South East Pakistan’s Sinh district, when he was fatally shot on May 29.

Sangi may have been targeted because of reports by KTN and the Sindi newspaper Kawaish on the punishment of a boy and girl by the Jirga tribal council.

Terrible targeting of family members
A new disturbing trend has emerged in Pakistan, which has seen two child relatives of journalists murdered in less than one month.

Bashir Khan, the child brother of slain journalist Hayatullah Khan, was brutally murdered on September 26, in what was apparently a message to his family who had been active in trying to expose Hayatullah’s killers.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated case. On August 31, the 16-year-old brother of BBC correspondent Dilawar Khan was found tortured and murdered in volatile South Waziristan, a tribal-ruled region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The murder of Taimur Khan, who was kidnapped two days earlier, may have been to get a message to Dilawar who has been under threat for the past two years for his reporting.

Kidnappings and torture
Kawish journalist Mehruddin Marri, who was abducted on June 27, was released on October 24 after four months of torture by military intelligence officers. Marri suffered months of interrogations, beatings, and torture, including electric shocks, in an attempt to make him confess ties with the Baluch nationalist movement.

Similarly, Saeed Sarbazi, joint secretary of the Karachi Press Club, senior Sub-Editor of daily Business Recorder and member of the All Pakistan Newspapers Employees Confederation’s National Executive Committee, was abducted by intelligence agencies on September 20 and returned late in the evening of September 22, after being beaten and kicked until unconscious, called a terrorist and criminal despite identifying himself as a journalist, being blindfolded for over 50 hours and was not allowed to eat or sleep.

Geo News reporter Mukesh Rupeta and freelance cameraman Sanjay Kumar, went missing on March 6, after being detained by Pakistani authorities for videoing the Jacobabad airbase, in Sindh. Nothing more was heard from Rupeta and Kumar by their employers or family until June 22, when their arrest was officially announced, and they were admitted to hospital because of their deteriorating health. They were released on bail on June 23.

Furthermore, one of the founders of the Baluchi-language TV station Baloch Voice, Munir Mengal, is still missing after disappearing on April 7.

Attacks, threats and abuse
Senior journalist and union leader Cr. Shamsi was brutally bashed by the security guards of the Federal Minister for Labour on September 13 in Islamabad, after Shamsi demanded the implementation of the Seventh Wage Award, and the minister ordered the guards to “fix him”.

Shamsi was beaten after a parliamentary session when he informed the Minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan of the proposed countrywide "sit-in" on September 15 in protest against the non-implementation of the Seventh Wage Award which guarantees better wages for Pakistani journalists.

A few days later, police attacked journalists at a public meeting of a religious organisation in Lahore on September 17. Wadood Mushtaq, from ARYONE World, received serious wounds on his face and jaw, and ATV's Malik Zahid and Mohannad Nazi suffered internal injuries and a fractured arm respectively.

Idress Rathore, a police officer from the Shezad Town Police Station in Islamabad has implicated Shakeel Anjum, a reporter with The News, in a triple murder case. Anjum has reportedly been critical of Idress Rathore in his articles and has faced threats since he covered a story on the extra-judicial killing of two men in May 2005. Anjum’s son was recently injured when unidentified attacks opened fire on his house.

Dire straights for journalists’ economic conditions
The present economic situation for media workers in Pakistan continues to deteriorate. Journalists who work for print media companies have little job stability, are often forced to work under contract, do not receive adequate letters of appointment, do not receive adequate wages, have no insurance, or medical support from their employers.

Pakistan newspapers owners are bound to pay the wages set out the Seventh Wage Board decision, which was handed down on October 8, 2001, and backdated to 2000, as stipulated by the Newspapers Employers Act (Conditions of Service) 1973, and passed by the National Assembly.

However, despite constant campaigning by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and other unions, with international support from the IFJ and national journalists’ unions from around the world, and regardless of promises made by the government, no progress has been made in implementing this award.

IFJ President Christopher Warren said: “The events of the last six months are a worrying indication that Pakistan is rapidly retreating further from a free and open society.”

“It absolutely unacceptable for authorities to stand by and allow murders, human rights abuses and press freedom violations to occur with little to no consequences for the perpetrators of these crimes,” Warren said.

“More must be done to ensure those who kill, attack, torture, or threaten journalists, are found and brought to justice,” the IFJ president said.

“The appalling lack of convictions for crimes against journalists sends a grave message to the world that a culture of impunity is developing in Pakistan, which has terrible implications for the future,” he said.

For more information please contact IFJ Asia Pacific +61 2 9333 0919

The IFJ represents more than 500,000 journalists in over 115 countries

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Probe into journalist's murder demanded

Probe into journalist's murder demanded May 14: The journalists belonging to Rawalpindi and Islamabad Press Club are wondering what would happen to the investigations into the case of murder of Pakistan Press International (PPI) bureau chief Malik Muhammad Ismail which are leading to no ample, definite and conclusive evidence who actually was behind this heinous and gruesome killing. Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) president Syed Huma Ali has also demanded an inquiry into the horrible murder of senior journalist Muhammad Ismail Malik. He has demanded that the culprits be awarded exemplary punishment. He said the federal government should arrest the killer to prove their concern and allay the sense of insecurity among the journalists' community over the situation. Source: The Post Date:5/16/2007