DECEMBER 23, 2005
Posted January 4, 2006
KhabroonATTACKED
Armed men threw a gasoline bomb into the offices of the Sindhi-language daily Khabroon in the southern city of Sukkur, setting the reception area on fire, according to local news reports. The attackers threatened the newspaper staff, including journalists, and fired shots into the office.
Imtnan Shahid, an editor of the parent group Khabrain, accused Sindhi nationalist activists of perpetrating the attack in opposition to state-sponsored advertisements in Khabroon promoting the building of a controversial dam, according to the Karachi-based Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF). The newspaper was one of a handful of Sindhi-language publications carrying the ads, which were part of a broad government campaign to rally public support for the Kalabagh Dam project.
Copies of Khabroon were also burned in other cities, including Mirpurkhas, Ghotki, Waro and Thal, according to PPF.
The staff of the newspaper later walked out in protest at the management decision to accept the government advertisements.