Siraj Uddin

Military leader Pervez Musharraf resigned as president in August under threat of impeachment, leaving a decidedly mixed legacy on press freedom. As his power waned in late 2007, Musharraf shut down all independent broadcasters for a time and then tried to impose a rigid “code of conduct” on the stations.

New York, September 2, 2008--A journalist who had been kidnapped by a local Taliban group was killed when a Pakistani airstrike hit the private jail where he was being held in the Swat Valley in Pakistan's tumultuous North West Frontier Province on Friday, according to local news reports citing a Taliban spokesman.

Militants abducted Abdul Aziz Shaheen, who worked for local newspapers including Urdu-language daily Azadi, on August 27, according to local news reports. The reason for the abduction is not known. A local press freedom group, the Pakistan Press Foundation, said the Taliban were angered by reports Shaheen had written about their activities. Shaheen's car was set on fire a week before he was abducted, although it was not clear whether local Taliban were also responsible for that attack, the group reported. 

PAKISTAN:

New York, March 4, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists extends its condolences to the family and colleagues of Siraj Uddin, a correspondent for the daily Nation, who died in the February 29 suicide bombing in Mingora, Pakistan. The bombing, which took the lives of more than 40 people, took place at the funeral of a slain police officer.