(PPF/IFEX) – On 14 April 2005, five armed men from the regional political party Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) stormed into the office of “Daily Mashriq” newspaper in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, and assaulted the paper’s executive editor, Kamran Mumtaz. According to a press report, the attackers were angry over the absence of statements […]
(PPF/IFEX) – On 14 April 2005, five armed men from the regional political party Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) stormed into the office of “Daily Mashriq” newspaper in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, and assaulted the paper’s executive editor, Kamran Mumtaz.
According to a press report, the attackers were angry over the absence of statements and press releases in the paper and “biased portrayal of their party.” According to the editor-in-chief of “Daily Mashriq”, the JWP members told the security guard at the paper’s main gate that they wanted to deliver a press release to the editorial department. The guard asked them to hand the press release to him, but they assaulted him and forced their way into the building. Two of the assailants remained outside the building to watch over the guard while the others forcibly entered the executive editor’s office.
One of the attackers used brass knuckles to strike Mumtaz on his face. The assailants ransacked the office and threatened management with dire consequences if the paper did not review its policy towards the JWP. When staff members tried to seize the assailants, they threatened to open fire on them. The attackers fled after an armed guard confronted them.
In a joint meeting of the Balochistan Editors’ Council, Balochistan Union of Journalists and Newspaper Hawkers’ Association, the groups strongly condemned the incident and described it as an attack on press freedom.
