Countrywide Protests observed over killings of Jan Muhammad, Asghar Khand
Lahore: PFUJ affiliated unions across the country staged protests and rallies, on Friday, against the killing of senior journalist Jan Muhammad Meher and Asghar Khand. The protestors demanded the Sindh government and law enforcement authorities to arrest real killers and present them in the court of law to be punished. The PFUJ leadership strongly condemned the killings and demanded the government to immediately arrest the culprits and put them behind the bar otherwise grand sit-ins (dharna) will be held in Sukhar and Islamabad.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has given a call to protest over the brutal killing of Jan Muhammad Meher who was targeted and many bullets were fired on him when he left HIS office in Sakhar on August 13. Three bullets hit him reportedly and he breathed his last in the hospital.
Protests and rallies were held in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Sakhar, Chishtian, Rani Pur, Khairpur and other cities of the country. PFUJ President GM Jamali, Secretary General Rana Muhammad Azeem, VP Sheher Bano, Secretary Finance Jamil Mirza, office bearers of the press clubs and regional unions condemned the killings and said that there appears an open license for the culprits to attack media workers as number of media workers had been attacked while tow were killed within two weeks in Sakhar division while some were facing fake cases registered against them on political grounds but the government and security authorities looked failed to arrest real killers and stop attacks & intimidations to the media workers who were duty bound to unearth stories against gangsters, politicians involved in different malfunctions. They continued that Sakhar division had become more critical where these incidents were repeatedly happening but all the cases were facing a state of impunity.
The speakers in the protests said that Sakhar police was making all out efforts to treat theses killing incidents resultant of some family rivalries but real killers were free to move around. The police was failed to provide any security to the media workers nor they had arrest the culprits who were making threat calls to the heirs of Asghar Khand and Jan Muhammad Meher. The Union leaders said this attitude of police officials was unacceptable. The PFUJ President announced that they would be staging grand protest & sit-in Sakhar and Islamabad, if the police failed to arrest real killers and give justice to the heirs. The leadership reiterated that federal and provincial governments should provide security to the media workers.