Three individuals, together with a senior journalist, had been killed and eight others injured in a bomb blast that focused his car in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Friday, police mentioned.
A remote-controlled roadside bomb was planted close to Chomrok Chowk on the outskirts of Khuzdar city and when Maulana Siddique Mengal, a senior journalist and in addition the president of the Khuzdar Press Club, reached the spot, the bomb was set off, a senior police official mentioned.
“Maulana Mengal and two other passersby were killed in the blast, while eight others were injured and taken to the hospital,” he mentioned.
Mengal was additionally a provincial officer-bearer of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) occasion. He additionally used to write down for a neighborhood newspaper, “Watan”. The assault on the senior journalist occurred on a day when World Press Freedom Day was noticed.
A police official mentioned that it’s nonetheless too early to say whether or not Mengal was focused due to his media work or due to his work as a provincial workplace bearer of the JUI-F.
Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti strongly condemned the assault and directed the Inspector General of Police to arrest the culprits.
The Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) additionally staged an indication towards the killing of Mengal and demanded that the provincial authorities ought to arrest the killers on the earliest.
Balochistan has been witnessing a sequence of terrorist actions for a number of years.
Most lately, on Thursday a minimum of one died and 20 others had been injured in twin landmine blasts that occurred close to Thaikedar Naddi within the Duki district of Balochistan. The first explosion occurred when a truck hit a landmine, adopted by a second blast as individuals gathered on the scene.
On Friday final, unknown assailants opened hearth within the Kali Tarata space of Pishin district and injured two senior cops, together with a DSP and SHO. In the same incident within the Tump space of the district, two labourers had been killed by armed males.
In 2023, Pakistan ranked 150 out of 180 nations on the World Press Freedom Index printed by Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), a non-profit that defends and promotes freedom of knowledge.
According to a report by Freedom Network, an impartial nationwide media watchdog, a minimum of 53 journalists had been murdered within the nation from 2012 to 2022. Only in two circumstances have convictions been obtained.
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
