Delawar Jan
When a reporter ran from city to city for two months, not many people knew that this senior Pakistani journalist was trying to stave off a looming threat to his life. Facing a constant threat from militants, he was advised by senior police officers in Peshawar, a main city in northwest Pakistan and a prime target of militants operating out of tribal areas along Afghanistan border, to leave the city during Moharram days in 2010. The law-enforcement agencies, according to him, had reports that the militants would attempt to kill him.
He agreed. But where could he seek refuge? For his security, he chose to change places. First, he took shelter in a government facility in Islamabad, the country’s capital and a relatively secured city, where he stayed for 11 days in December 2010. He found the next shelter in eastern Lahore city, and then he rushed to Buner, a district in northwest run over by Taliban militants in April 2009 but retaken by army the same year. In January 2011, he dashed to Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, to dodge eyes chasing him.
This is how journalists operate for years now in Pakistan—running for life after reporting on Taliban-led conflicts. Many have lost life in this battle. Others find themselves in a hell.
It’s this hostile environment that makes it the world’s most dangerous country for journalists, where threats come from a crowd of unseen enemies.
In 2010, according to Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), 11 journalists were murdered in Pakistan, though, Yousaf Ali, then general secretary of the Khyber Union of Journalists in Peshawar, puts it at 17, including media workers.
Violence against journalists was not something distinctive of 2010. In fact, the first decade of the 21st century proved bloody [upto 46 killed] for media men in that South Asian country, showing that the violence is not only consistent but also growing alarmingly.
If the journalists’ murders over the last two year ares put on Pakistan’s map, they would dot three provinces—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Baluchistan and Sindh, besides Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
It shows a spread of violence against journalists, who were, previously, targeted mainly in Fata and KP. It’s an alarming development.
Besides families, these killings give nightmares to the community at large. Journalists see death lurking around them all the time. Hardly anyone knows when and who will come to kill him—enemies are faceless, armed and ruthless.
The tragic murder of Musa Khankhel, my colleague, still haunts me. His body remained unclaimed after he was ruthlessly killed in 2009 while covering a peace rally in Swat, a troubled district then.
As luck would have it, his younger brother, Essa Khankhel, also a journalist, reported the news about that unclaimed body to his channel. Painfully for him, Essa discovered shortly afterwards that the unattended corpse he had reported about was of his journalist brother. It devastated him and his family and sent chills down spines of journalists covering events on that occasion.
No body, until now, knows why and who murdered him, thanks to government’s criminal indifference.
Such a lurking death claimed the life of Wali Khan Babar, a young journalist from southern port city of Karachi. He became the first journalist murdered in Pakistan in 2011.
For the senior journalist in Peshawar, threat is not over, yet he is lucky not to have become one among the many journalists slain over years. “I have not only written against Taliban militants but also spoken against them and their internal and external sponsors and supporters,” he said about threats from terrorists.
He said his stories had made him a target for militants.
With the battle to save his life continuing, he resumed reporting for his newspaper from Peshawar. This senior journalist says the threats had tremendously hobbled his freedom as a journalist.
“Neither I am in a position to travel outside of Peshawar nor can I visit the troubled regions in connection with professional responsibilities,” he said. He finds it risky to introduce himself in public places, particularly in regions under militants’ influence. Many like him are faced with the same situation.
One still remembers the days when one did the same by hiding identity in troubled regions to avoid harm to life and didn’t give by-line on critical stories. In late 2009 and early 2010, threats increased to such a level that the management of our newspaper asked us not to attend office in Peshawar and instead file stories from homes.
Situation has grown so worse over the last couple of years that the militants, previously reluctant, are now brazenly taking responsibility for killing journalists. Take example of Misri Khan who was shot and killed in Hangu district in September 2010. Most recently in 2012, Mukarram Khan Atif was murdered by them. They threatened of more such actions against journalists.
Such threats and hostile environment have forced dozens of journalists, who are underpaid or even unpaid, from most of the troubled tribal agencies and six Frontier Regions to leave homes. Houses of several journalists have now turned into rubble.
They have taken shelter in Peshawar, Islamabad, Bannu, Dera Ismael Khan and Kohat. Because of their profession, they are living as displaced people. They have less or no freedom. Some, still living in their native areas, find themselves firmly shackled and threatened.
A journalist from the volatile Bajaur Agency, whose name is being held back for his security, has not visited his house for over three years and doesn’t see his return in near future. His counterpart was murdered in 2008 just he returned from an interview with a Taliban spokesman. Due to threats and harassment, he has undergone a hell of stress even living in Peshawar.
“Me and my children underwent extreme agony,” he said. “Often, I failed to write due to stress.” Majority of the journalists face the same situation.
While the reporter from Bajaur has taken refuge in Peshawar, it is insecure for the senior journalist of Peshawar. “Even some of them (senior police officers) suggested me to leave Peshawar,” he said.
All uprooted journalists have been unable to undertake reporting assignments in their native areas, where most of the significant developments occur. They take information for their reports by phone. On many occasions, besides the information being second-hand or even incorrect, they miss important stories for being away.
“If you report militants’ activities and their viewpoint, army gets angry and if you do coverage of military operations, you earn militants’ wrath,” the journalist from Bajaur said of the quandary they face. Majority of journalists share his opinion.
This situation leads them to self-censorship, something that even doesn’t ensure their safety and security.
If militants are ruthless, state agencies are no different. Ali says journalists have been sandwiched between militants and the military.
Umar Cheema, who works with an English-language newspaper of Pakistan, The News International, was kidnapped from Islamabad in early September 2010. He was beaten, tortured and humiliated. He later said ISI was behind his ordeal.
Ordered by prime minister, findings of an inquiry seem buried under tons of earth. Demand from parliamentarians and journalists to make it public went unmet.
Other journalists, no matter how senior they are, are often “advised” not to write “unwanted” stories and to toe a certain line. Disagreement is hardly an option to be considered.
From all warring sides, threats are not confined to journalists, but their family members are also made to bear the brunt of their work. To give a couple of examples, house of Hayatullah Khan, killed in 2006 in North Waziristan, was attacked the next year, killing his widow.
A young son and daughter of Ibrahim Khan, killed in Bajaur in 2008, were injured when some masked gunmen made an abortive attempt to kidnap them in 2009.
Such threats to family members of journalists have not receded. This fact keeps the journalist from Peshawar more worried about his school-going daughter in Peshawar than his own security. He changes her security plan every day.
Pathetic is the role of State of Pakistan. Killing of journalists is a stigma it seems uninterested in removing. The government response to journalists’ murders is frustrating. It did not show interest in investigating cases properly and failed to bring perpetrators, except in Daniel Pearl’s case, to justice. Now the crime of killing a journalist has become something acceptable.
With a precipitous spike in journalists’ murder during the last few months and government’s indifference, journalists like the senior fellow in Peshawar who did not bow to threats for quite some time can hardly afford to ignore them anymore as the killings continue with impunity.
Almost every journalist, slain or alive, has his/her own tragic story but not many inside and outside Pakistan know that the information they are getting is being paid with blood and unending ordeal.
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