Illustration by Reem Khurshid
FILTHY curses, and the gleam of a pistol. That is about all the barber says he knows of the attack on Ajay Lalwani as the journalist sat getting a shave from him on the evening of March 17 in Saleh Pat, Sukkur district. The street outside was in darkness because of a power cut; a couple of emergency bulbs provided the only light inside. “I heard someone order me to move to the back of my shop,” recalls Khalil Ahmed the barber. Then came the gunshots. Two bullet holes can be seen in the barber’s chair where Ajay sat. Witnesses saw two men flee from the scene on a motorbike. Three more individuals waiting in a car outside sped away while firing in the air. “The thana is within walking distance, but the cops took half an hour to arrive,” says a source within the police.
Killings, attacks and intimidation: Journalism under fire across borders
Illustration: Noor Us Safa Anik
For the first time, media organisations in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal are coming together to report about the killings, attacks, harassment, and intimidation of journalists in these South Asian countries. It is the first such collaboration by media outlets in the region.
By Nirmal Jovial
On the evening of August 8, 2020, ten women from Subhash Mohalla in North East Delhi proceeded to the Bhajanpura police station to make the police register a first information report on a complaint they had made two days before. The complaint was that some men had tried to foment communal tension in their locality. The complainants said the men had abused Muslims, tied saffron flags near a mosque and burst crackers in celebration of a ceremony for the construction of a temple at faraway Ayodhya on August 5.
April 29, 2021
KARACHI: The Sindh Police have declared the former chairman and vice-chairman of Union Council Salehpat, Syed Inayat Shah and Ihsan Shah, and Ashiq Mirani, former Station House Officer (SHO) of Police Station Salehpat, district Sukkur, as accused in an interim challan of the murder case of journalist Ajay Lalwani.
SSP Kandhkot-Kashmore Amjad Shaikh, the newly-appointed Investigation Officer of journalist Ajay Lalwani murder case, submitted an interim charge sheet, which also included the section of the Anti-Terrorism (7-ATA) in a local court of Sukkur.
Journalist Lalwani, a local journalist of Salehpat Town of district Sukkur associated with a local Sindhi newspaper, received three bullets by some unknown assailants and succumbed to his injuries on the next day (March 18, 2021) while being treated at the Civil Hospital, Sukkur
National
April 29, 2021
KARACHI: The Sindh Police have declared the former chairman and vice-chairman of Union Council Salehpat, Syed Inayat Shah and Ihsan Shah, and Ashiq Mirani, former Station House Officer (SHO) of Police Station Salehpat, district Sukkur, as accused in an interim challan of the murder case of journalist Ajay Lalwani.
SSP Kandhkot-Kashmore Amjad Shaikh, the newly-appointed Investigation Officer of journalist Ajay Lalwani murder case, submitted an interim charge sheet, which also included the section of the Anti-Terrorism (7-ATA) in a local court of Sukkur.
Journalist Lalwani, a local journalist of Salehpat Town of district Sukkur associated with a local Sindhi newspaper, received three bullets by some unknown assailants and succumbed to his injuries on the next day (March 18, 2021) while being treated at the Civil Hospital, Sukkur