Equipment stolen, burned in raid on pro-Baluch paper

New York, April 8, 2013–Pakistani authorities should immediately investigate an attack on the Karachi bureau of the Urdu-language Daily Tawar and ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

A large group of unidentified men entered the paper’s offices in the neighborhood of Lyari early Saturday and stole computers and other equipment, according to local news reports. The accounts said the assailants burned records and archives before leaving the premises.

The Daily Tawar, whose headquarters are in Quetta, is a pro-Baluch nationalist paper that acts as a voice for secessionist-minded groups in neighboring Baluchistan. The paper is known for its coverage of the many conflicts between rival groups and the government. In March 2013, Haji Abdul Razzaq Baloch, a copy editor for the Daily Tawar, was abducted in Karachi. He remains missing. In November 2011, the body of Javed Naseer Rind, a Daily Tawar editor and columnist, was found two months after he disappeared in his hometown of Hub in Baluchistan.

“The pattern of violence directed against the Daily Tawar and its staff is undeniable. The government must act to protect the paper and its journalists even if they voice opinions that the government resists,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator.

With at least seven journalists killed in Pakistan in 2012, the country was ranked one of the world’s deadliest for the press, according to CPJ’s census conducted on December 1.

  • For more data and analysis on Pakistan, visit CPJ’s Attacks on the Press.