KARACHI: A journalist working with a private news channel was shot dead by robbers in North Nazimabad on Friday morning, police said.

They said Athar Mateen, who was associated with Samaa TV as senior news producer, was returning home after dropping off his children to their school. As he reached Shah Medical Hospital, Block-A, near KDA Chowrangi, he witnessed two armed robbers trying to rob a passer-by. He accelerated his car and hit the motorbike of the robbers, who fell on the road.

The muggers opened fire at Mateen and escaped after snatching the motorbike of another person. The police have impounded the motorbike they had abandoned.

Gulberg SP Tahir Noorani said Mateen, 42, suffered a single bullet wound in the chest and died on way to a private hospital. The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

He said investigators collected three spent bullet casings fired from a .30-bore pistol from the crime scene and sent them to police’s forensic science lab.

“The evidence collected during the preliminary probe showed that it was not a targeted killing,” DIG-West Nasir Aftab told the media after visiting the crime scene.

He left behind a widow and two daughters to mourn. The victim’s elder brother, Tariq Mateen, is also a journalist and TV anchor.

Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon formed a team led by the DIG-West with two SSPs as members to investigate the murder, said a police spokesperson.

Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the ‘brutal murder’ of the journalist and expressed sorrows with the grieved family. He directed law enforcers for taking every possible step to bring the culprits to justice.

Journalist organisations held a meeting at the Karachi Press Club to demand a judicial inquiry into the incident. They observed that the killing of a journalist on the main road in daylight indicated failure of the government and law enforcers.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2022