At
least four gunmen on two motorcycles opened fire on an Express TV van, used for
live transmissions from the field, which was parked in the North Nazimabad
suburb of Karachi, according to news reports and Kamal Siddiqi, editor of the
English-language paper The Express Tribune.
The
attack killed Khalid, a driver for Express TV, as well as Ashraf Arain, a security
guard, and Waqas Aziz Khan, a broadcast technician, the reports said. A
cameraman, identified only as Mehtab, was also injured in the attack, the
reports said.
The Express Tribune reported that law enforcement found at least 17 shell casings from 9mm
and .32 caliber pistols at the crime scene. These were sent to the police
forensic division, the paper reported.
Express
Media Group includes The Express Tribune, as well as the
Express TV news channel and the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Express. Siddiqi told CPJ that
he could not point to any specific reports that could have led to the attack.
The outlets report critically on politics, crime, and international affairs,
and have periodically received threats.
Siddiqi
told CPJ that Ehsanullah Ehsan, a former spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP), contacted the station immediately after the attack and said the
group claimed responsibility. Al-Jazeera reported that a
spokesman for the TTP, in a statement the same day, accused Express TV and
other media outlets of supporting the government in what it called a war
against the group.
The
attack came shortly after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had ordered law
enforcement in Karachi to sweep for individuals identified as criminals for their
alleged involvement in murder, abductions, and terrorism. A week after the Express
killings, he called the effort a “successful, across-the-board operation
against criminals and anti-social elements.”
“I
am 100 percent certain this is a targeted attack,” District West police chief
Javed Odho told The Express Tribune. He said that an investigation had
been launched into the attack.