Unidentified armed persons have abducted a Baloch journalist from Kohlu, Balochistan.
According to The Balochistan Post’s local correspondent, the president of Kohlu press club, Zeb Daar Marri has been abducted by unknown armed persons.
According to Abdullah Baloch, a journalist and member of Quetta press club, Mr. Marri was covering the political activities related to upcoming general elections, when he was abducted and taken away.
Journalist unions have expressed grave concerns on Mr. Marri’s disappearance.
Pakistani Federal Union of Journalist’s president, Afzal Butt, and Secretary General, Ayub Jan Sirhindi, strongly condemned abduction of Kohlu press club’s president.
In a statement PFUJ, said that journalists are facing unjust pressure while performing journalistic duties. ‘It is impossible to conduct free and fair elections, if journalists are not allowed to report independently,’ officials of PFUJ said.
PFUJ urged Pakistani Election Commission to take urgent notice of Zeb Daar Marri’s abduction and order Pakistan’s secret services to produce the said journalist.
According to analysts, Balochistan is witnessing a clampdown on the freedom of the Press in a move to silence the independence of the media.
In May, the Government of Pakistan blocked further publication of The Dawn, one of the country’s leading English dailies, for publishing an interview with the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, where the latter had acknowledged that the terror attacks launched in Mumbai between November 26 and 29, 2008, were carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists.
During last few years, many bloggers, journalists and social activists have been abducted by armed personnel in civilian cloths.
Few of the bloggers that were later released have accused Pakistani Intelligence agencies of being behind their illegal detention.