NEW YORK, Oct 28 (APP):The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent watchdog body, has called on Pakistani authorities to swiftly investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of attacks against a journalist and news organizations in the country this week.
Journalist, Ahmed Noorani was reportedly intercepted and attacked by unidentified assailants in Islamabad’s Zero Point area on Friday morning, police said.
The attackers assaulted Noorani, who works for The News International, and his driver, Mumtaz, with knives near the Urdu University, and three different attacks were reported in Balochistan amid threats to news organizations and distributors from militant groups, according to media reports.
“These repeated brutal attacks show once again that nowhere is safe for journalists or news workers in Pakistan,” CPJ Asia Programme Coordinator Steven Butler said in a statement issued late Friday.
“Pakistani authorities must assure that these attacks on press freedom come to a halt by swiftly finding and punishing those responsible,” he said.
CPJ said it had documented the wide array of risks journalists in Balochistan face. Pakistan was eighth on CPJ’s 2016 Impunity Index.
Pakistan's National News Agency
