VOA journalist shot dead by Taliban in Pak
 |
Mukarram
Khan Atif was attacked at a mosque near his home at Shabqadar town, 35
km from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
Two
gunmen on motorcycles arrived at the mosque during evening prayers. One
of them entered the mosque and shot Atif in the head before fleeing,
police said.
Atif was taken to a nearby hospital in a critical condition but succumbed to his injuries.
A prayer leader was injured in the attack. The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the killing.
Taliban
spokesman Ensanullah Ehsan told reporters in the country's northwest
that Atif was killed as had not heeded the militants warnings to "stop
anti-Taliban reporting".
Besides
working for VOA's Pashto language Deewa Radio, Atif was a correspondent
for Dunya news channel and a former president of the Mohmand Agency
Press Club.
He belonged to the Mohmand tribal region. Atif's friends told VOA that he had received threats from militants in the past.
He and his family were forced to move to Shabqadar from their home in Mohmand Agency due to the threats.
Journalist groups condemned the killing of Atif and urged the government to take strict action against his killers.
Reporters
working for VOA's Deewa and Mashaal services say the Pakistani Taliban
have publicly threatened them for working for an American organisation.
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