Tanoli, 35, a reporter with the regional Urdu-language daily
Shumal, was killed in the town of Mansehra in Pakistan’s North West Frontier
Province, which is now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Tanoli was stopped on a
highway, dragged from his car, and shot several times, the official Associated
Press of Pakistan reported.
Tanoli had written critical stories about the head of the
local government, Khalid Javed, including a piece published three days before
his murder that accused the official of involvement in an illegal liquor
business, news reports said. Police filed murder charges against Javed,
prompting the official to flee, according to news reports. Although Javed
eventually returned, the murder charges were never revived, according to Kiran
Nazish, a journalist who has studied anti-press attacks in Pakistan.