QUETTA: A local journalist working for a news agency was gunned down in Mastung on Wednesday.

Nisar Ahmed Lehri was returning home when armed men opened fire on him, killing him on the spot.

Police rushed to the site after receiving information about the incident and shifted the body to Nawab Raisani Memorial Hospital.

Police attributed the killing to a tribal clash over a land dispute.

“We are investigating the incident,” a senior police officer said.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) strongly condemned the murder of Nisar Lahri and asked the government to arrest the killers.

In separate statements issued on Tuesday, PFUJ president Afzal Butt and Secretary General Arshad Ansari and the BUJ president criticised the Balochistan government’s claims of protecting journalists, citing the number of media persons killed in the province over the years as evidence of its failure.

They observed that the killing of Nisar Lehri, who was also the press secretary of the Sarawan Press Club in Mastung, would exacerbate the sense of fear among media persons in the province.

“It appears that both remote areas of Balochistan and main towns have become highly unsafe for media personnel,” they said, adding that had the government apprehended and punished the perpetrators of previous journalist murders, this incident could have been prevented.

“We demand that the government arrest all killers, including those responsible for Lehri’s murder.”

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2024