Censorship in Pakistan has ranged from the ridiculous to the downright terrifying. But as the country entered a new phase in 1983, Salman Rushdie hoped for change
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Urdu-language television stations available via cable were suspended in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan province on Wednesday, after the Cable Operators Association received threats from nationalist groups. Babark Khan, president of the Balochistan Cable Operators Association, told the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) that he received a threatening letter in writing from the Baloch Student Organisation on 31 January calling for the transmission of Urdu-language television stations to be halted and threatening consequences. The fraught region has faced separatist insurgency carried out by Baloch nationalists, who claim their grievances have been paid little attention by Pakistan media.
A senior reporter was shot dead in a Pakistan mosque yesterday. Mukarram Khan Atif, a correspondent for Washington-based Deewa Radio and a reporter for the Pakistani television station Dunya News, was shot by two unidentified gunmen during evening prayers. Atif was shot in the chest and head, and was taken to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Another reporter, Rasool Dawar, claimed to have received a phone call from Ehsanulah Ehsan, the spokesman for banned militant organization Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, who claiming responsibility for the attack.
A TV journalist in Pakistan was shot and critically injured during a riot on Sunday. Ehsan Kohati, a senior reporter for the Waqt News TV channel was wounded in the chest and abdomen whilst reporting at a rally than turned violent in Karachi on November 27. Kohati was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he remains in a stable condition. Seven other people were injured and two were killed in the attack on a rally of Shiite Muslim mourners on the first day of the Islamic calendar month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar.