QUETTA: On Wednesday, a local journalist for a news agency was shot and killed in Mastung.
Nisar Ahmed Lehri was shot and killed instantly by armed individuals as he was making his way home.
After learning of the event, police raced to the scene and moved the body to Nawab Raisani Memorial Hospital.
The death was ascribed by the police to a tribal fight over a territorial issue.
“We are looking into the incident,” a senior law enforcement official declared.
The killing of Nisar Lahri was sharply denounced by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ), who also demanded that the government apprehend those responsible.
PFUJ president Afzal Butt, Secretary General Arshad Ansari, and the president of BUJ criticized the Balochistan government’s claims of protecting journalists in separate comments released on Tuesday. They pointed to the number of media personnel who had died in the province over the years as proof of their inadequacy.
They noted that the death of Nisar Lehri—who was also the press secretary of the Sarawan Press Club in Mastung—would make the province’s media professionals feel even more afraid.
They remarked, “It appears that both main towns and remote areas of Balochistan have become highly unsafe for media personnel.” They also said that this incident could have been avoided had the government caught and punished the people who had killed other journalists in the past.
“We want the government to apprehend all murderers, including the ones who killed Lehri.”
