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| Image copyright; Jim Wood. |
Pakistan is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the 2014 R.S.F
(Reporters Without Borders) freedom index.
The Balochistan
province in Pakistan sits on the south-eastern corner of the country
neighbouring Iran and Afghanistan. Baloch rebels have been fighting against
what they call “illegal occupation by Iranian and Pakistani” armed groups who
reportedly commit human rights violations.
The Balochistan conflict has been ongoing
since 2003; the conflict between Baloch nationalists and the governments of Pakistan
and Iran in the Balochistan Province in south-western Pakistan, Sistan and Balochistan
Province in south-eastern Iran, and the Balochistan region of southern Afghanistan
has gone largely unreported due to the unstableness of the region where Western
media are not allowed to go.
Both Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch have reported that government forces...military,
intelligence agencies and the paramilitary Frontier Corps...have engaged in
“kill and dump” operations, targeted killings of opposition leaders, activists
and enforced disappearances. A source inside the Panjgar district of
Balochistan claims that these groups do not follow the law of the country
because they do not trust the judiciary system of Pakistan. Mass graves have
been discovered, where the bodies found have been so badly mutilated and
decomposed that identification has been almost impossible. According to my
source the Taliban are also active in the area. The Al-Qaeda linked radical
Islamist group Jundallah are also known to be active in the area.
From 2002 –
May 2014 it is known that 78 journalists have been killed in Pakistan. As
reported by Ahmed Rashid a Pakistani journalist writing
for the
BBC last year; “So many journalists have been killed in Balochistan that there
are few honest reports from the province in the national print or electronic
media because journalists are too scared. The story of this bloody civil war is
going untold... As long as the government stays silent on Balochistan, the
longest civil war in Pakistan's history will only create more casualties and
break more records for longevity and heartbreak.”
My source, “Muhammad”...who
has asked me to protect his identity... a journalist who works for a respected
newspaper in Pakistan and has been nominated for an Agahi Award (Pakistan’s
national press award), told me how last year the Taliban came to his home and
told him to; “Leave Pakistan or else be ready to die.” They then set fire to
his adobe house and left leaving the journalist to deal with the fire. He has
been on the run living in hiding ever since. He lives in fear of his life after
writing a critical investigative story about money transferring to the Taliban
by banks in Pakistan, women’s rights and a critical article about the Pakistani
government’s hypocrisy. He says that his colleagues have also been threatened
in such a manner and are being killed one by one.
Outside agencies are
unable to help because of the unstable situation in the Baluchistan region,
despite many requests from local journalists. One of “Muhammad’s” journalist
friends was Irshad Mastoi, he was killed last year in October following threats
by Baloch security agencies and militant groups, when two gunmen stormed the
offices of the independent news agency Online International News Network in
Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province and killed Irshad they also killed
a trainee journalist called Ghulam Rasool and accountant Muhammad Younus, the gunmen escaped
with-out being caught. Before his death Irshad said;
“There is no security for journalists in Balochistan. We lost
our many friends but not a single perpetrator of the crime was booked. We are
facing constant threats to our lives,”
"Muhammad" tells me that Mastoi, who was Secretary-General of the B.U.J (Balochistan Union of Journalists), had told R.S.F
(Reporters Without Borders) in 2012 that he was in a delicate position, caught
between Baloch rebels insisting that his agency carry their statements and
Pakistani intelligence service threatening reprisals if he yielded to rebel
pressure.
Unable to secure help “Muhammad”
is still living in hiding and fears for his life on a daily basis. “My mental
and physical health is being affected, I have no-where to go, no-one to trust
and no-one will help me.” He says his contacts have informed him another
journalist was shot just last week, although this has not been reported in main
stream media.
