ISLAMABAD: Police have opened an investigation into Tuesday’s shooting and wounding of a journalist and former Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) chief.
Absar Alam, who is in his 50s, was shot at in a park close to his home in Islamabad, police said in an initial statement. He was shot in the ribs and was in hospital but out of danger, police said.
“I have not lost my spirit, and I will not lose my spirit,” Alam said in a video message he recorded in a car on his way to the hospital after the attack.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s relations with the press and broadcasters have become increasingly strained since he took office after an election in July 2018.
In a rare statement, the military denied involvement in the shooting. “We vehemently deny this. The military has nothing to do with this,” the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) wing told Reuters.
Activists claim the crackdown on the media since 2018 has left 3,000 journalists and other media workers jobless.
Amnesty International and the Community to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on authorities to investigate the shooting and find those responsible.
The shooting “highlights the dangerous climate that all members of the press face in Pakistan if they dare to criticise the country’s powerful military”, said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator.
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) ranked Pakistan among the five dangerous countries for journalists in 2020, when four journalists were killed.
