Shah, 50, an employee of the Peshawar Press Club, was among those killed when a suicide
bomber attempting to enter the property set off an explosive device. A police
officer, the bomber, and a bystander were killed along with Shah, an accountant
and cashier at the club, according to news accounts. Twenty-six people were reported injured.
More than 30 journalists were inside the club awaiting
the start of a press conference when the bomb exploded, news reports said.
The
explosion occurred at 11:40 a.m. when Riazuddin Khan,
a police constable providing security for the club, halted the bomber near the
gate to the property, club members said. The force of the explosion blew out press
club windows, damaged a guard hut, and tore apart nearby vehicles. The club had
recently upgraded security because members had received increasing threats from
militant groups.
“We
were saved because this brave officer sacrificed his own life to save us,”
Iqbal Khattak, Peshawar bureau chief of the Daily
Times, told CPJ in an e-mail message a day after the attack. Press clubs, a
tradition in major Pakistani cities, are used by the media as meeting halls and
venues for press conferences.