New York, December 6, 2010–Authorities in Sindh province must fully investigate Sunday’s shooting death of Pakistani journalist Mehmood Chandio, president of the Mirpurkhas press club and bureau chief for the Sindhi-language television Awaz, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Assailants knocked on the door of Chandio’s home, firing two or three times when he answered, Mazhar Abbas, a former head of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, told CPJ in an e-mail message Sunday. Chandio died after being transported to the hospital.
Chandio was a prominent local figure. Soon after his death, colleagues staged a protest outside the local press club, calling for a forceful investigation into the killing. CPJ is investigating to determine whether the slaying is related to his work.
“Provincial authorities must take charge of the investigation into Mehmood Chandio’s brutal slaying and bring his killers to justice,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Pakistan has one of the world’s worst records of impunity in the case of journalists’ deaths, with a dozen killings unprosecuted since 2002.”
CPJ’s Impunity Index ranked Pakistan as the 10th worst country in solving journalist murders.