Update: Following the publication of this alert, the local press freedom group Pakistan Press Foundation and the Pakistani newspaper The News International reported that Zaib was targeted over a personal dispute.
New York, July 16, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a surge in the killing of journalists in Pakistan, as the July 14 shooting of Malik Hassan Zaib brings the death toll to seven since the start of the year.
On Sunday afternoon, Hassan Zaib, a reporter for the privately owned Urdu-language newspaper Daily Aaj, was in a car with his brother in the northwestern city of Peshawar when two unidentified assailants on a motorbike stopped the vehicle and shot the journalist dead on the spot, according to news reports.
“Authorities in Pakistan must immediately end this horrifying wave of violence and hold the perpetrators of the killing of journalist Malik Hassan Zaib to account,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “The continued impunity for those who attack journalists is creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in Pakistan, which prevents the practice of free and independent journalism.”
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via text message.
At least six other journalists have been killed in Pakistan so far in 2024. Hassan Zaib is the third to die in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in addition to Khalil Jibran and Kamran Dawar. CPJ is investigating the motives behind the attacks.