PAKISTAN: Pakistani reporter gunned down outside his home in village near Afghan border

Press release | 23 May 2024

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Pakistani authorities to shed all possible light on an independent reporter’s murder in North Waziristan, a mountainous district bordering Afghanistan, on 21 May, just weeks after he voiced fears for his safety. Those responsible must be brought to justice, RSF says.

An independent online reporter aged in his 30s, Kamran Dawar was slain by unidentified gunmen outside his home in Tappi, a village 15 km south of Miranshah, the chief town in the North Waziristan district, which is located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“It was a targeted murder,” Miranshah-based police officer Rukhan Zeb Khan told RSF’s Pakistan representative, when reached by telephone.

Dawar ran a YouTube channel and a Facebook TV news channel called Waziristan TV in which he covered the social problems that his fellow citizens face in North Waziristan. The Miranshah press club said in a statement that he had voiced concerns about his safety. He leaves a widow and two young daughters.

“This independent journalist’s murder highlights the perilous environment in which Pakistani media professionals work. Pakistan continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. This killing must not go unpunished, as so many others have in Pakistan. We call on the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and to bring those responsible to justice," said Célia Mercier, Head of RSF’s South Asia desk.

The media community has condemned Dawar’s murder and has called for an investigation that brings the perpetrators to justice. No group has so far claimed the killing, RSF has learned.

Dawar was the fourth journalist to be killed in Waziristan since 2005, in an increasingly dangerous environment. Several politicians and election candidates have been killed recently in the district, which borders Afghanistan’s Khost province.

In the southern province of Sindh, the same day, Nasrullah Gadani, a journalist with the Awami Awaz newspaper, was severely injured by motorcycle gunmen near the city of Mirpur Mathelo. Gadani denounced the feudal system in his province and was targeted because of his work, the newspaper’s editor, Jabbar Khattak, told RSF’s Pakistan representative.