MIRPUR (AJK), June 19 2006: Mirpur journalists took to the streets to protest the killing of a journalist Hayatullah Khan in South Waziristan here on June 18. The protest demonstration was managed by the Kashmir Press Club Mirpur and was supported by various journalists’ organizations of Kashmir to register their indignation against the murder of the journalist Hayatullah Khan. The protesters led by the Press Club President Arshad Mehmood Butt, General Secretary Muhammad Ramzan Chughtai, senior journalists Altaf Hamid Rao, Zafar Mughal, Khalid Chaudhry, Raja Habib Ullah Khan, Raja Muhammad Asif Rathoi,

Mussadiq Chaudhry and others marched through the Kashmir Press Club road raising slogans against the brutal killing of one of their colleague for his” crime” of raising and maintaining the sanctity of pen. The demonstrating journalists were holding placards bearing slogans including’ stop killing of journalists”, “down with brutalities against journalists’, ‘down with gruesome murder of Hayatullah’, ‘freedom of press Zindabad’, ‘arrest killers of Hayat and penalize the culprits’ and ‘hold high-level judicial probe into the killing of the media man’. They also demanded protection for journalists and freedom of press throughout the country, including tribal areas. Later, Fateha was offered for Hayatullah and they prayed for the bereaved family. The rally later dispersed peacefully.
Source: The Nation
Date:6/19/2006