A journalist was shot and killed during an alleged robbery bid in the Bank Colony area of Quetta on Saturday evening, police officials said.

Police said the journalist, Abdul Wahid Raisani, was going home from his office yesterday evening when robbers tried to snatch his motorcycle near Qambrani Road. During the ensuing struggle, the robbers fired shots, one of which struck Raisani's chest, they added.

Rescue teams took Raisani to the hospital "immediately" after the firing incident but he could not survive the wound and passed away, according to police. Further investigation is ongoing, they said.

The journalist's family refused to give a statement.

Raisani had been working as a sub-editor for Daily Azadi for the last three years.

The Balochistan Union of Journalists strongly condemned the incident and demanded the immediate arrest of those responsible for Raisani's death.

Earlier this week, senior journalist and former chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Authority (Pemra), Absar Alam, was shot in Islamabad.

In a video shared by journalist Asad Toor, Alam could be heard saying he was shot at while walking outside his home.

"I've been hit in my ribs," he said, adding that he had not lost hope.

Earlier this month, a local journalist, Waseem Alam, was shot dead by unidentified persons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Karak.

He was returning home on his motorcycle when he was targeted. He was subsequently rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

At least 10 journalists were murdered and several others threatened, kidnapped, tortured and arrested in Pakistan on trumped-up charges while discharging their professional responsibilities in 2020 alone, according to the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors' (CPNE) Media Freedom Report 2020.

No action has so far been taken against those responsible for torturing and killing journalists and it seems that such persons enjoy impunity. "It is a matter of grave concern that the legal system of the country has become useless in protecting and providing justice to journalists," said the report.