Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) remembers the work of a photojournalist and columnist for the Urdu-language weekly Akbar-e-Jehan Dr Abdus Samad Chishti Mujahid, was fatally shot by a gunman in Quetta, the capital of the Balochistan province on February 9, 2008. Mujahid’s murder was the result of a headline — a headline he had not himself even written — that angered the Baloch Liberation Army, now a banned group. It provides a cautionary tale for newsrooms in the country to train not just senior reporters but all desk staff.
On the fateful day, Mujahid, 55, was shot as he was coming out of his house with his wife. He received one bullet in the face and another in the chest area. He was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Speaking to PPF, Mujahid’s widow Gulnaz Akhtar said: “My husband was murdered for his writing, no one was punished for his brutal killing.
Satellite Town Police Station Moharrar told PPF that a First Information Report was registered for the murder but no one was arrested as the FIR was just a document on which no investigation was carried out. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) had claimed responsibility for the killing According to press reports, BLA spokesman Meerak Baloch telephoned the Quetta Press Club and said Mujahid had been killed because he was working against the Baloch cause.
