Chamrok/Geneva: A journalist was killed in Balochistan on May 3, 2024, the World Press Freedom Day. The journalist, Maulana Mohammad Siddique Mengal, was killed in a bomb explosion that took place in the Chamrok area of Balochistan in western Pakistan, according to local media outlets.
Two other persons were also killed and many injured during Friday’s blasts. The injured were shifted to nearby hospitals for necessary medical treatment. No group claimed its responsibility to date.
Mengal was also the president of the Khuzdar Press Club and a regular contributor to a newspaper titled Watan. He was on his way to the mosque for prayers when the bomb exploded near his car.
Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the global media safety and rights body, expressed serious concern over the killing of the senior journalist and demanded a thorough investigation of the incident that led to the death of Mengal.
“Siddique Mengal is the 43rd journalist to be killed this year around the world. We mourn his demise and urge the Balochistan government to adequately compensate the bereaved family”, said Blaise Lempen, president of PEC, adding that a few weeks back the South Asian nation lost another journalist named Jam Saghir Ahmed Lar to assailants. He used to work for Daily Khabrain from Punjab province. Before him, a Pakpattan-based journalist, Tahira Nosheen Rana, was brutally assassinated.
PEC’s South and Southeast Asia representative Nava Thakuria revealed that since 1 January 2024, four journo-casualties have been reported from Pakistan and Myanmar (which lost Ko Myat Thu Tun to military atrocities). Last year, Pakistan lost Imtiaz Baig, Ghulam Asghar Khand and Jan Mohammed Mahar to assailants and India witnessed the killing of Shashikant Warishe, Abdur Rauf Alamgir and Vimal Kumar Yadav. Similarly, Ashiqul Islam and Golam Rabbani Nadim lost their lives in Bangladesh, where Husein Naderi and Akmal Nazari were killed in Afghanistan.
– global bihari bureau
