Daily Times

HARIPUR: A senior journalist affiliated with a private media group was shot dead in Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday.

Bakhshish Elahi, the bureau chief of an Urdu newspaper, was targeted by unidentified motorcyclists near Lora Chowk when he was heading to work.

Police officials said that attackers were on bike and opened fire on Bakhshish when he reached Lora Chowk. The assailants fired relentlessly and Bakhshish passed away on the spot.

Bakhshih, commonly known as Bakhshi among his fellows, was on way to his office in Abbottabad where he was supervising the private Urdu-Hindko television K-2 as its Bureau Chief for Hazara region.

Daily K-2 Editor Sardar Iftikhar said that Bakshi was murdered close to a police post “which highlights our security failures.”

In response to a question, Sardar Iftikhar denied the possibility of someone having personal enmity against Bakhshi. He said that Bakhshi was among the most active, talented and dedicated journalists and that his determined activism might be the sole reason for his murder.

Members of the Haripur Press Club staged a sit-in near Panya Chowk to protest against Elahi’s killing, blocking the GT road. The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) and the National Press Club (NPC) Islamabad have announced a protest outside the NPC on Monday afternoon against the journalist’s killing.