Sukkur police on Tuesday registered a first information report (FIR) of the murder of senior journalist Jan Muhammad Mahar who was shot dead in the city two days ago.

Mahar, a senior journalist associated with a private Sindhi newspaper and its TV channel, was shot dead by armed men riding a motorcycle near St. Saviour School on Queens Road in Sukkur on late Sunday evening.

According to police, the assailants fired several shots at Mahar, who was travelling in his car. The journalist received several bullets to his head and near his eyes, police said, adding that he was rushed to a private hospital in an extremely serious condition. He succumbed to his wounds during surgery.

The deceased was laid to rest in his native graveyard in Chak Town of Shikarpur district on Monday.

An FIR of his murder was filed today under Sections 147 (related to riots), 148 (pertaining to rioting with deadly weapons), 440 (concerning mischief committed with intent to cause harm), 120-B (related to criminal conspiracy), and 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) at the C-Section police station.

JIT demanded

Separately, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists wrote a letter to the chief minister of Sindh, seeking the formation of a joint investigation team to comprehensively probe the murder of the senior journalist.

The PFUJ demanded that representatives of the Inter-Service Intelligence, the Military Intelligence, the Federal Investigation Agency, Rangers and Sindh Police be included in the JIT.

“A JIT would provide a coordinated and multi-agency approach, leveraging the expertise and resources of different investigative bodies, and thereby increasing the likelihood of a thorough and impartial investigation,” the journalists’ body said.

The PFUJ assured its support to law enforcement agencies on the matter.