(PPF/IFEX) – On 18 April 2003, a criminal gang abducted and assaulted Sami Paracha, the district correspondent for the “Daily Dawn” newspaper in Kohat, North West Frontier Province. Paracha had been investigating the lavish facilities being provided in hospital to a certain Pir Habib Shah, who had been arrested earlier and was undergoing medical treatment. […]
(PPF/IFEX) – On 18 April 2003, a criminal gang abducted and assaulted Sami Paracha, the district correspondent for the “Daily Dawn” newspaper in Kohat, North West Frontier Province.
Paracha had been investigating the lavish facilities being provided in hospital to a certain Pir Habib Shah, who had been arrested earlier and was undergoing medical treatment. Pir Habib Shah apparently got annoyed by Paracha’s investigations and decided to “teach him a lesson”.
A group of Pir Habib Shah’s associates came to Paracha’s house and asked him to accompany them to a meeting that the town mayor was expected to attend. Instead, however, they took the journalist to the hospital where he was threatened, beaten up and locked in a bathroom. Paracha had his mobile telephone and was able to contact the town’s police chief, the senior superintendent of police (SSP), and inform him of his predicament.
The police raided the site where Paracha was being held and rescued him. The SSP police arrested five people and registered criminal complaints (First Information Report, FIR) under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The SSP said Paracha had been provided with security.
On 19 April, a delegation of Kohat journalists called on the Kohat region deputy inspector-general of police to lodge a protest against the journalist’s abduction.
