Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Governor Kamran Tessori on Tuesday took notice of journalist Mohammed Bachal’s killing by dacoits in the katcha (riverine) area of Rounti in Sindh’s Ghotki district.

Organised criminal gangs have been active in the riverine border areas of southern Sindh and central Punjab for decades, often making money through kidnap-for-ransom assaults.

The military had launched a full-scale operation against criminal gangs in Sindh in the early 1990s but they resurfaced after successive governments failed to maintain law and order in the province.

Bachal, a reporter with Awaaz TV, was gunned down by unknown men in Ghotki’s Rounti area.

CM Murad directed Sindh Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ghulam Nabi Memon to immediately arrest the culprits behind Bachal’s killing, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Expressing his grief over the incident, the chief minister prayed for the deceased and his bereaved family.

“We believe in freedom of the press,” CM Murad was quoted as saying. He further ordered that the ongoing operation against the dacoits be intensified.

Tessori also took notice of the issue, a statement issued by the Governor House said.

He summoned a report from IGP Memon and directed him to conduct a transparent probe into the murder.

“The killers should be brought to justice under any circumstances,” the governor was quoted as saying in the statement.

Governor Tessori prayed for the slain journalist and his family left behind.

Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar also summoned an urgent report on the incident from the Ghotki’s senior superintendent of police (SSP), a statement from his office said.

Ordering action against the suspects involved in Bachal’s killing, Lanjar directed technical tools to be used to trace the perpetrators.

Echoing CM Murad’s instructions, the home minister ordered that the anti-dacoit operation be sped up by deploying fresh police reinforcements.

Lanjar further sought daily progress reports on the case from the Ghotki SSP.

In a statement, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said Bachal’s murder was an attack on journalism and the freedom of expression.

“Silencing journalists through violence is unacceptable,” he said.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also strongly condemned the murder and hoped that the perpetrators would be brought to justice soon.

“PPP believes in freedom of expression and freedom of press,” he said and reassured the family of the deceased that he would stand with them in seeking justice.

PFUJ demands culprits’ arrest

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) strongly condemned the journalist’s murder.

In a press release issued by PFUJ Information Secretary Ehtishamul Haq, the journalists’ body demanded the Sindh government immediately arrest and punish the culprits.

“Katcha dacoits have occupied Bachal’s land and ancestral home, regarding which a jirga was also held with his family,” the PFUJ claimed.

It further said that dacoits had previously also tried to set Bachal on fire.

“He was sitting at his home with his daughter in the morning today when he was attacked and killed,” the press release said.

The PFUJ highlighted that “none of the culprits in recent cases of journalists’ murders have been punished so far”.

It criticised the police for its “traditional delay and negligence”.

The union called for the killers of several journalists to be punished and their families to be paid compensation.

Sindh Parliamentary Reporters’ Association also condemned Bachal’s killing, saying it was “intolerable”.

Recent killings of journalists

Sindh has seen multiple killings of journalists in the past year.

A year ago, Sukkur journalist Jan Muhammad Mahar was shot dead by armed men. So far, the police have claimed to have arrested seven facilitators of the main killer, with some found to be in contact with dacoits.

Another Ghotki journalist, Nasrullah Gadani, who worked for a Sindhi newspaper, was shot at and seriously wounded in an attack on May 21 and succumbed to fatal injuries at a Karachi hospital three days later.

Also in May, print media journalist Ashfaq Ahmed Sial was allegedly gunned down by two motorcyclists in Punjab’s Muzaffargarh.

Dacoits have resurfaced this month on the Sukkur-Multan Motorway M-5 near Ghotki district.

Pakistan is ranked 152nd out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders (RSF’s) 2024 World Press Freedom Index.

According to the media watchdog, Pakistan was “one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished.”