QUETTA: Police have registered cases against four daily newspapers for publishing a statement issued by a banned terrorist organisation.

Reporters, editors, publishers and printers of Jang, Mashriq, Intekhab and Express have been nominated in an FIR lodged  under the Anti-Terrorist Act for publishing the statement of Jaish Al-Islam.

In the statement, Jaish Al-Islam had claimed responsibility for the killing of DSP Amir Mohammad Dasti and his guard in Quetta on April 8.

Sources said the FIR had been lodged on a complaint of local police.

The FIR has referred to a notification issued by the Balochistan government declaring Jaish Al-Islam a banned organisation.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists-Dastoori condemned the registration of cases.

In a statement, the PFUJ-D President, Idrees Bakhtiar, and its Secretary General Mian Rifaat Qadri termed it “illogical and unacceptable”.

They urged the Balochistan government to withdraw the cases against the editors, publishers and reporters of the newspapers.—Staff Correspondent