Reporters in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province protested on June 19 after a fellow journalist was shot and killed by unidentified armed men.
The protest took place after the funeral for the journalist, Khalil Afridi, who worked for Pashto-language Khyber TV. He also served twice as president of the local press club in Landi Kotal, a Pakistani town near Torkham. In addition to working as a journalist in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Afridi was a civil society activist.
More than 1,000 people from the area and other members of the community were present for Afridi’s funeral in Landi Kotal.
Shams Mohmand, the head of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Journalists Association, told reporters after the funeral that the association would hold another demonstration on June 21 at Bab-e-Khyber (Khyber Gate) to demand the safety and security of journalists.
Police said Afridi was killed on June 18 at around 10 p.m. local time when his car was stopped by hooded armed men who opened fire. Afridi died at the scene, while a friend who was also in the car, was injured, police officer Sajid Afridi, who is not related to the victim, told RFE/RL.
Police said Afridi and his friend had gone to a flood site and were attacked on their way home. No one has claimed responsibility for his death.
His family and officials said gunmen had been threatening him for a long time, and his family said he had been attacked by gunmen in the past. Afridi’s family said someone planted a bomb under his car on November 24, 2017. It failed to detonate, but on the same day he and four other journalists were arrested by the militia forces and held against their will for a few days.
Domestic and international media watchdogs have called Pakistan one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.
The Freedom Network, a nongovernmental organization working for media freedom and freedom of expression in Pakistan, said in its annual report on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, that there had been an increase in threats to journalists and media in the country.
The report said that four journalists were killed in Pakistan between May 2023 and April 2024, adding that their deaths were among 104 cases of violence against journalists and media workers in Pakistan during the period.
The government has repeatedly insisted that there is a free media in the country and that all citizens have the right to freedom of expression.
The government passed a law in 2021 on the protection of journalists, under which the government is to take appropriate measures against all forms of harassment, violence, and abuse of reporters and media workers.