Unidentified armed men shot dead a journalist in northwestern Pakistan on December 7, police and the journalist's relatives told Radio Mashaal on December 8.
Qais Javed was attacked in the Madina colony of Dera Ismail Khan city, his relatives said.
Anwar Masih, a relative of the slain journalist, told Radio Mashaal that Qais was attacked around 7 p.m. local time as he was entering his house. He died on the spot.
Javed had been running his own Urdu-language web channel named Ehad Nama over the past three years. Earlier, he worked with the Urdu-language Geo television as a cameraman in the region.
He belonged to the Christian minority community. His relatives say there was no enmity with anyone and Qais did not receive any threat before the incident.
Fazal Rabi, a senior police officer in Dera Ismail Khan, told Radio Mashaal that police had launched investigations into the incident for which no group or individual had so far claimed responsibility.
Meanwhile, representatives of local media organizations condemned the incident. Saud Mehsud, general secretary of the Mehsud Press Club, told Radio Mashaal that the club condemns the incident and demands the immediate arrest of the killers.
Dera Ismail Khan is located on the periphery of the South Waziristan tribal district, which was once a stronghold of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban. The TTP has issued threats to journalists in the area and the rest of Pakistan from time to time.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Global Index 2020, Pakistan is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists' safety. The New York-based media watchdog database shows that 61 journalists have been killed in attacks in Pakistan since 1992.
