Daily Times

A young blogger was reportedly killed, while his uncle was injured by an unidentified stabber in Islamabad on Sunday night.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Malik Naeem said that Bilal, who was with his uncle Ehtesham, was attacked in the G-9/4 area of the federal capital. Bilal was killed while his uncle was severely injured in the attack, and was currently undergoing treatment at PIMS, he said.

According to the police official, Bilal – who has over 16,000 followers on Twitter, over 48,000 on his YouTube channel and over 22,000 followers on Facebook – received a phone call from an unidentified person to come to G-9, “where a man took him into the forest”.

The suspect then used a dagger to murder Bilal, said police, adding that gunshots were also heard in the area.

Funeral prayer for Bilal was scheduled at the high school ground of Bari Sheikh-ul-Bandi, Abbottabad. One funeral prayer was also offered in Aabpara in Islamabad.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered on Sunday night at 11pm at Karachi Company Police Station on the complaint of the victim’s father, Abdullah, under murder and terrorism charges.

According to Abdullah, he was at his cousin’s house in Bhara Kahu when at around 9:30pm he received a call from a cousin (Ehtesham) that he and Bilal had been attacked by unidentified individual(s) and were injured. He said that when he reached PIMS emergency, his son had passed away. He added that various parts of his son’s body had stab wounds.

Abdullah called for stern action against the suspects who had killed his son and injured his cousin. The late blogger’s phone was reportedly in police custody where the record was being accessed.

The father of the deceased, seen in a video addressing a group of men, said that his son had no personal enmity. He said his son spent his life talking about Islam. Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari condemned Bilal’s murder and assured that the government would investigate the incident. “Strongly condemn the murder of Bilal Khan. Disagreement and opposition to someone’s views simply cannot be translated into killing the person. Govt must & it will investigate and punish the killers – it is our responsibility to keep all our citizens secure under rule of law,” she tweeted.