(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is concerned by the death threats received by an exiled Afghan journalist. ** Updates IFEX alert of 27 January 1999** According to our information, Waliullah Saleem, thirty nine, director of the Peshawar based Sahaar News Agency, has received several death threats from unidentified people. In August 1998 Saleem broke a story regarding […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is concerned by the death threats received by an exiled
Afghan journalist.
** Updates IFEX alert of 27 January 1999**
According to our information, Waliullah Saleem, thirty nine, director of
the Peshawar based Sahaar News Agency, has received several death
threats from unidentified people. In August 1998 Saleem broke a story
regarding the seizure of a 110 Scud missiles by the Taliban militia in
Mazar-i-Sharif (northern Afghanistan). A few days later he received a
call saying “you should listen to everything but do not report it”. On
10 January 1999 he gave an interview to Radio Tehran analyzing the
reasons for the murders of several exiled Afghan in northern Pakistan.
Two days later, he was threatened by an unidentified caller who told him
“to keep silent or [they] will silence him.” Saleem also gave an
interview to the radio programme, Voice of America, in he which he said
that 6,000 people, including many belonging to the Taliban, were
involved in illegal timber trafficking in the province of Kunar (Afghan
border of the North West Frontier Province – NWFP). Shortly afterward
some friends told him not to go to the province because he would be in
danger. Recently he was chased by unidentified people
who followed him to his office. Then Saleem decided to hide in Islamabad
where he cannot live because of his very low wages.
Saleem did not name any individual or group for the threats but he
hinted that the Taliban or radical Arab groups – reacting to another
story he wrote – might be involved in this harassment.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to his excellency:
Afghans) have received death threats in the past six months from
suspected members of the Taliban militia or fundamentalist parties in
NWFP, and have decided to go into hiding
the threats to court
able to carry out his work without fearing for his life
Appeals To
His Excellency Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
Office of the Prime Minister
Islamabad, Pakistan
E-mail: primeminister@pak.gov.pk
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
