New York, October 6, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating last week’s murder of Ameer Bux Brohi, 27, a district reporter for The Daily Kawish, the largest Sindh-language daily newspaper in Pakistan’s Sindh Province, and Kavish Television News (KTN).
The police chief in the rural town of Shikapur where the murder took place told CPJ that two unidentified gunmen shot Brohi in front of the local police station at 8:15 p.m. on October 3 and fled the scene. The journalist had been quarreling with the unidentified gunmen, according to witnesses quoted in The Daily Kawish. Police rushed Brohi to the Shikapur District Hospital, where he died from his injuries, the Pakistan Press Foundation reported.
The motive is unclear, but local journalists told CPJ they are outraged by Brohi’s killing and they believe that the murder was motivated by Brohi’s reporting on sensitive local issues that may have angered feudal strongmen. Local journalists are demonstrating throughout Sindh Province and calling for a full investigation into the shooting.
Brohi is the second journalist to have been killed in Sindh Province in the last year.
