CPJ calls for investigation into journalist’s murder
WASHINGTON: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged an immediate, high-level investigation into the murder of Muhammad Ismail, Islamabad bureau chief of Pakistan Press International (PPI).
CPJ, quoting Mazhar Abbas, secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, noted that Ismail’s body was found on Wednesday morning near his home in Islamabad with his head smashed. The Associated Press reported a police investigator saying that an iron bar may have been used as the weapon. Ismail, nearing retirement, was last seen when he left his house to take a late evening walk. Doctors who received the body when it was taken to hospital told PFUJ that Ismail had been dead a few hours before the body was discovered.
CPJ said Ismail’s family told Abbas that they were at a loss to understand as to what could have prompted the attack. They told him that Ismail was carrying little of value on him when he was assaulted. PPI is not known for particularly critical reporting of the government, CPJ said.
Joel Simon, CPJ executive director, said Ismail’s murder must be fully investigated. An alarming number of Pakistani journalists have been killed with impunity in the last four years, he pointed out, while urging that the government must show that it is determined to end this very poor record by waging a timely and thorough investigation.
CPJ records show that at least nine journalists have been killed for their work beginning in 2002, when Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and brutally slain in Pakistan. Only in the Pearl case has the government carried out an extensive investigation. staff report
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