Pakistani journalists protest against killing of two correspondents

Monday, 4 March 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

ISLAMABAD (Xinhua): Journalists in Pakistan Saturday held protest meetings against the target killing of two senior reporters in three days, taking the death toll of journalists killed in Pakistan to five in two months, local media reported.

Gunmen shot dead a journalist, Mehmood Ahmed Afridi, in southwestern Balochistan province on Friday. On Wednesday, gunmen assassinated a senior journalist, Malik Mumtaz, in the restive North Waziristan tribal region.

No group claimed responsibility for both attacks. Officials describe the incidents as targeted attacks. Families of the slain reporters said they had no personal enmity.

Journalists in the northwestern city of Peshawar and the southwestern Quetta Saturday held protest meetings against the killing of reporters and demanded of the government to arrest those behind their killing.

The participants said that target attacks on journalists have raised serious concerns of the whole media persons in Pakistan. Five journalists have been killed in Pakistan in 2013. Four of those have been killed in Balochistan. Seven journalists were killed in Pakistan last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.