“It is essential that the perpetrators of this crime be brought to justice as soon as possible,” Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) said in a press release on Wednesday.

Mr. Shakir, a correspondent for the Online news network and Balochi TV Sabzbagh, was shot dead on August 14 when he was going home from the Press Club in Khuzdar.

“Journalists must be provided with reasonable conditions of security if they are to exercise the basic human right of freedom of expression and provide people with the independent information they require to exercise their democratic rights responsibly,” she added.

Mr Shakir is the 13th journalist killed in Pakistan this year, according to the Rural Media Network, a Pakistani non-governmental organisation.

Just last week, the UN human rights office urged the Pakistani government to investigate numerous reports of abductions, disappearances and extrajudicial killings, particularly of journalists.