Pakistan should immediately investigate the murder of a Baluch journalist: CPJ

“Haji Abdul Razzaq Baloch’s disappearance and death is another grim reminder of the precarious conditions Baluch journalists face in Pakistan.” – said CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, Bob Dietz.

New York, August 22, 2013– Authorities in Pakistan should immediately investigate the murder of a Baluch journalist whose body was found in Karachi on Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Haji Abdul Razzaq Baloch had been missing since March, according to news reports.

Razzaq’s face was mutilated, and his body showed signs of strangulation and torture, according to Agence France-Presse. Razzaq’s family initially denied that the body was that of the journalist, but then later confirmed his identity, reports said.

Baluch journalist reported missing in Karachi

New York, March 28, 2013–Pakistani authorities should determine the whereabouts of a Baluch journalist living in Karachi who was last seen on March 24, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Haji Abdul Razzaq Baloch was last seen leaving his friend’s house in the Liyari neighborhood of Karachi, according to news reports. Razzaq has worked as a copy editor for the news desk of the Urdu-language pro-Baluch nationalist newspaper Daily Tawar, the reports said. He is also a member of the Baluch National Movement, a nationalist political organization.

Journalist deaths spike in 2012 due to Syria, Somalia and Pakistan

NEW YORK: The number of journalists killed in the line of duty rose sharply in 2012, as the war in Syria (28), a record number of shootings in Somalia (12), continued violence in Pakistan (7), and a worrying increase in Brazilian (4) murders contributed to a 42 percent increase in deaths from the previous year. Internet journalists were hit harder than ever, while the proportion of freelancers was again higher than the historical average, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its yearly analysis.

Death of local reporter in Pakistan must be fully investigated

New York, January 11, 2011: The Committee to Protect Journalists joins with our colleagues in Pakistan in calling for a full investigation into the killing of Ilyas Nizzar, who was found dead in Pidarak, in the volatile Baluchistan province, in Pakistan’s southwest, on January 5. Nizzar, a general assignment reporter with the Baluch-language magazine Darwanth, had been missing and assumed abducted since December 28. According to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Nizzar’s body was found on a dirt road near the small town of Pidrak, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) west of Karachi on Wednesday.