PFUJ condemns bomb attack in Quetta as TV cameraman loses life

The Baloch Hal News

ILAMABAD, April 16: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has condemned the coward attack at Civil Hospital Quetta following a shooting incident on Mannan Chowk, Quetta in which a banker Arshad Zaidi was wounded.

The injured succumbed to injuries at Civil Hospital. After this incident, teams of private TV channels with their DSNGs also rushed to the hospital.

When reporters and cameramen of the TV channels were covering events, a powerful blast occurred.

According to reports, at least 12 people, including a TV journalist and two senior police officials lost their lives and 35 others, including five journalists, sustained injuries.

The reports further revealed that Samaa TV cameraman Malik Arif lost his life in a the suicide bombing at the Quetta hospital while five other journalists, Noor Elahi Bugti of Samaa TV, Salman Ashraf of Geo TV, Fareed Ahmed of Dunya TV, Khalil Ahmed of Express TV and Malik Sohail of Aaj TV were among the injured.”

Expressing concern over the state of affairs prevailing in Balochistan, the PFUJ said the incident had again proved that media persons are working in hostile conditions without any security or protection, and they easily fall prey to such incidents.

The PFUJ said that incidents of firing, blasts have become order of the day in various parts of the country, especially in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, and in tribal areas in which a number of journalists have seriously been injured while about six journalists have already lost thir lives while performing thier professional assignments after the 9/11 incident in Pakistan.

The PFUJ pointed out that media persons are given assignments in war / conflict zones without providing them required security gadgets, jackets or any capacity-building exercise for reporting in such situations.

The PFUJ further contended that neither the media owners care about their legal obligation, nor the government was taking any notice of such types of incidents, in which the lives of media persons are at stake.

The PFUJ pointed out that media persons were never trained nor  any protective material given to them despite demands made by the PFUJ.

The PFUJ urged the government to take notice of the Quetta incident and provide compensation to the family of the deceased cameraman and injured journalists.

The PFUJ cautioned that if media owners did not provide security to media persons, the PFUJ would be compelled to seek registration of criminal cases against them for ignoring their responsibilities towards their staff.

Malik Arif had been in journalism for the last 30 years. He had risked his life on countless occasions to bring best coverage. Malik Arif had been working with the private channel for the past two years.

Arif had joined PTV in 1975 as a light man and was then promoted as cameraman. He is survived by four sons, a daughter and a widow.

The PFUJ termed the incident a shameful act of terrorism which reflected inhumane and callous nature of the perpetrators. The journalist community is taking the incident as an attack on the media, the PFUJ said.