Hindu journalist killed in Pak’s Sindh province

PTI, Mar 20, 2021, 2:30 PM IST

Karachi: A 31-year-old Hindu journalist in Pakistan has been shot dead by some unidentified assailants while getting a haircut at a barbershop in the country’s Sindh province, media reports said on Saturday.

Ajay Lalvani, a reporter with a local television station and an Urdu language newspaper Daily Puchano, died on Thursday after he sustained bullet injuries in the stomach, arm, and knee, The News International reported.

He was sitting in the barbershop in Sukkur city when assailants on two bikes and a car drove by and opened fire.

Lalvani was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died.

His father Dileep Kumar said that the family did not have any enmity, dismissing the police’s claim of the murder being the result of personal enmity, according to the report.

The police on Friday registered an FIR against three unknown assailants and launched an investigation.

Condemning the killing, a Hindu member of Pakistan’s National Assembly (MNA) Lal Chand Malhi said that it is a “matter of great concern”.

“Strongly condemn D killing of yet another journalist Ajay Kumar at Saleh Pat, Sindh. It is a matter of great concern that media persons are increasingly feeling unsafe in Sindh. Offered condolence to the heirs of the victim. Police should (go) beyond forming comtes. (sic),” he said on Twitter.

A group of journalists protested against Lalvani’s killing and carried out a march after his funeral.

They claimed that the incident was a targeted killing as they held the Sukkur Police responsible for the incident.

Local traders also observed a shutter down strike against the killing.

Meanwhile, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an American independent non-profit organisation, urged authorities in Sindh province to “must immediately launch a credible investigation” and apprehend those responsible for the killing.