Journalists in the Pakistani city of Karachi have staged a protest to condemn an attack on a TV news reporter, giving the government a two-day deadline to arrest the culprits, local press have reported.
Naveed Kamal, 26, a news reporter with Metro One TV channel, was shot and critically wounded in the neck by unidentified men on Tuesday night at Abul Hasan Isphahani road and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit at the Aga Khan Hospital.
The Karachi Union of Journalists condemned the incident and called it “an attack on the journalist community”.
The attack was also decried by Sports Journalists Association of Sindh (SJAS) , which called on the Sindh Government probe to the incident.
Karachi Union of Journalists Berna General Secretary Hassan Abbas said people would protest for a while and then go back home and forget all about the incident, which is what happened with reporter Wali Khan Babar’s murder.
The TV journalist was killed in January but no progress has been made in the investigation, claimed Abbas. He added that the solution to their problems is unity.
Addressing the rally, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said he has talked to the police about the incident.
He said that a new trend has started in the city and journalists are attacked to shut them up.
Memon promised that the government would devise a strategy for the journalists’ security.
“We will need your support and suggestions for this because although it is impossible to give individual security to every journalist, we can make a general framework.”
