DERA MURAD JAMALI: A journalist was shot dead in Usta Mohammad town of Jaffarabad district early on Sunday.

Police said Zafarullah Jatak was asleep in his room when armed men broke into the house and opened fire at him. He received multiple bullet wounds and died on the spot.

Mr Jatak was working as a part-time correspondent for the Quetta Urdu daily Intikhab.

After the attack police cordoned off the area and launched a search for suspects. However, no arrest was reported.

A police official told Dawn that a number of journalists had complained of receiving threats from some unidentified groups. He said investigators were trying to ascertain whether Mr Jatak’s murder was an incident of targeted killing or the result of some enmity.

Over 43 journalists have been killed in Balochistan over the past few years.

Meanwhile, journalists in Balochistan condemned Mr Jatak’s murder. They said the government and law-enforcement agencies had failed in providing protection to media personnel.

They regretted that in many cases families of slain journalists did not receive the compensation money from the government or the media groups they were associated with.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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