A correspondent of a Pakistani newspaper was arrested by security agencies in North Waziristan near the Pak-Afghan border.
This statement was originally published on pakistanpressfoundation.org on 7 April 2015.
A correspondent of a Pakistani newspaper was arrested by security agencies in North Waziristan near the Pak-Afghan border.
The security forces detained Nasrum Minallah, correspondent of Express Tribune, along with his father, also a reporter, and four other journalists at Kajori check post in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) near the Pak-Afghan border, at about 03:00PM on 31 March 2015.
Later, Nasrum Minallah’s father and four other detained journalists were released.
Talking to PPF, Haji Pazir Gul, the journalist’s father, who himself is a correspondent for Daily Dawn newspaper, said that he was going along with his son Nasrum Minallah and four other journalists to cover a story on internally displaced persons (IDPs). However, at Kajori check post, security forces stopped them and asked them to provide proof of their identity.
He said that after confirming their identification, the security forces let them go; however, 4 to 5 kilometers later they were once again intercepted by the security force personnel, who took them to an unknown location and detained them for about 10 hours. He said they kept his son Nasrum Minallah in another room and did not release him. He said he does not know why his son was detained.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Rana Muhammad Azeem and Secretary General Amin Yousuf have demanded the security agencies release Nasrum Minallah immediately.
The detention of Nasrum Minallah is also being condemned by the journalist community in Pakistan.
At Bannu Press Club in Khyber-Pakhtunkhuwa Province, local journalists held a meeting and passed a resolution unanimously, demanding the government and security forces release the detained reporter. They warned of more protest actions if the reporter is not released.
