KHYBER: The family members of slain journalist Khalil Jibran have appealed for their immediate relocation to a safer place after unidentified persons torched a portion of their commercial building situated adjacent to their house in the Sultankhel area of Landi Kotal.

Khalil’s 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter contended that they were feeling highly insecure after the murder of their father on June 18 and the torching of a snooker club in their commercial property on Sunday night.

Khalil’s son, an intermediate student, said that the family were still in trauma after the murder of their father. He added that unidentified persons were bent upon depriving them of their only source of income by targeting their commercial property.

He added that those elements also threatened them with “dire consequences” if the snooker club was not immediately shut down. “This market is now our only source of income while we now feel highly insecure and frightened after the Sunday night incident,” he added.

Unidentified persons torch a portion of its commercial property

Khalil’s daughter said that their entire family was under tremendous mental stress as people could barge into their house anytime after burning their snooker club.

She was also apprehensive about the continuation of her own and two other sisters’ education, as they could not leave their house for fear of any reprisal from the people involved in Khalil’s murder. “Our father was very keen about our education and wanted us to complete our studies,” she added.

Both of the deceased’s children insisted that their lives were under constant threat and that only an immediate relocation of their family to a safer place could provide them temporary relief and much-needed safety. They said that they did not register a First Information Report out of fear.

They appealed to the federal and provincial governments to seriously look into the two horrific incidents by constituting investigation teams and providing them with foolproof security and adequate compensation for the loss of their father and the burning of their commercial property.

Meanwhile, District Police Officer Saleem Abbas Kulachi told Dawn that more than 12 suspects were part of the investigation into the murder case of Khalil Jibran but there was no major headway or progress in the investigation so far.

He added that although no FIR of the snooker club being torched was registered with the police, they had collected DVR footage, samples of broken glasses, handwritten pamphlets and other evidence from the site.

Sources said that district administration and security officials were contemplating the installation of closed circuit security cameras at suitable places around the Mazreena area where Khalil was murdered, while checkposts would also be established at Sultankhel market to keep an eye on the movements of undesirable elements.

Unidentified armed men had killed a policeman in the area four months ago, while a taxi driver was also killed at Sultankhel market about a month ago by militants, who accused the deceased of being an informer of security forces.

Officials from the district administration said that though they had not received any formal request from the family members of the slain journalist about their shifting to a safer place, they had already initiated the process of prompt compensation to them after June 18.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2024