New York, January 11, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists joins with our colleagues in Pakistan in calling for a full investigation into the killing of Ilyas Nizzar, who was found dead in Pidarak, in the volatile Baluchistan province, in Pakistan's southwest, on January 5. Nizzar, a general assignment reporter with the Baluch-language magazine Darwanth, had been missing and assumed abducted since December 28. According to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Nizzar's body was found on a dirt road near the small town of Pidrak, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) west of Karachi on Wednesday.
It is not clear whether Nizzar was killed because of his
work as a journalist. His body was found alongside that of a member of the Baluch
Students' Organization, Qambar Chakar, who had disappeared from his home in
Turbat on November 27.
"Pakistan has a long, harsh record of impunity for those who
kill journalists, and we hope that this murder will not remain unsolved as have
so many," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "Ilyas Nizzar's death
must be fully investigated and his killers brought to justice."
Pakistan
ranked at the top of the list of countries in which journalists are killed for
their work in 2010, according to
CPJ data. The country also ranked 10th on CPJ's Global
Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are slain and
killers go free.
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