LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), May 22: The self-proclaimed leader of the Lashkar-i-Islam, Mangal Bagh, issued a ‘death warrant’ for local journalist Nasrullah Afridi on Monday.

In a late evening sermon on his illegal FM radio channel, Bagh accused the daily Mashriq’s Khyber Agency correspondent of “giving undue coverage” to Bagh’s opponents. Exhorting his supporters to “kill him with missiles,” Bagh accused Mr Afridi of accepting bribe from the Ansaar leadership.

This is the third time the Lashkar-i-Islam has issued threats to Mr Afridi, who was forced to shift to Hyatabad, Peshawar, in June 2006 because of fears over his own and his family’s safety. After the latest threat, the Shalobar journalist has decided to move to Islamabad.

Talking to Dawn on the phone, Mr Afridi complained of the local administration’s complete failure to provide security to him. He said that he had made a number of requests in this regard to officials of the Khyber Agency political administration and the Fata secretariat in Peshawar, but to no avail.

Clearly perturbed by the threat to his life, the journalist appealed to human rights activists to help him, and said that if his safety cannot be assured, he will have no option but to leave the country.

Mr Afridi accused the Bara administration of having left the area’s affairs to the mercy of “a band of criminally-minded people,” and said that Bara could never be safe unless measures were taken against “these self-proclaimed champions of Islam.”

The general secretary of the Tribal Union of Journalists, Aurangzeb Khan, has demanded that Mr Afridi be given full protection.