Death of Aftab Alam

Last updated

Death of Aftab Alam
LocationNorth Karachi
DateSeptember 8, 2015 (PKT (+5 UTC))
Attack type
Firearm
Weapons0.9mm pistol
Deaths5
VictimsAftab Alam
PerpetratorsSuspects
MotiveProvoke sectarian violence

Journalist Aftab Alam and four others were killed in several related attacks in North Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Alam was targeted for murder by the Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) to provoke sectarian violence in Pakistan as he was from the Deobandi movement and to receive the widespread news coverage that a journalist typically receives when killed. At least four others were killed in the same terrorist operation. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Aftab Alam

Aftab Alam was born around 1970. He lived with his extended family in the 11-C area of North Karachi, which is close to the Sir Syed market. On the day of his murder, he was arriving home from picking up his children from school. After the attack he died on the way to the hospital. He was 44 years old at the time of his murder. [1] [4] [5] [6]

Alam began his career with Geo TV, where he produced business news. He later joined Samaa TV as an assignment editor. In addition to his journalism, he worked at the Karachi Stock Exchange and was engaged in real estate. [1] [4] [7] Unemployed at time of his death. [1]

Attacks

Aftab Alam
AftabAlamImage.jpg
Born1970
Pakistan
DiedSeptember 8, 2015
11-C area of North Karachi
Cause of deathMultiple gunshot wounds
NationalityPakistani
OccupationTV Journalist
Employer(s)Geo News, Samaa TV
MovementDeobandi movement [3]
Pakistan relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Karachi
Red pog.svg
Islamabad
class=notpageimage|
Karachi is the city in Pakistan where Aftab Alam was murdered, and is shown relative to Islamabad which is the capital of Pakistan.

The attack on Aftab Alam was carried out by Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan's Manzar Imam group, which is a Shiite terrorist group operating in Pakistan and Indian. Alam's name was on the group's hit list of members of the Deobandi movement. [2]

The murders of Alam and others targeted by the group were timed to take place before the month of Muharram, which for the SMP is full of religious significance. Pakistani counter-terrorism in Karachi was bracing for further violence from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP), Mehdi Force, affiliates of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Jundullah, and al-Qaeda and reported that 86 people had been killed in 2015 from sectarian violence. [8] [9]

Aftab Alam was murdered the day after Geo TV's satellite technician Arshad Ali Jaffery, also transliterated as Jafri or Jaffari, was killed. [1] [10] At least four other journalists were killed in Pakistan in 2015. [11] [12] [13]

Around the same time frame as Jaffery and Alam, another journalist, Abdul Azam, was shot three times in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, which is close to the Afghanistan border. [14]

The Karachi Press Club is active after the death of two journalists over two days. Karachi PressClub3.jpg
The Karachi Press Club is active after the death of two journalists over two days.

The Counter Terrorism Department arrested four suspects in the case, including Syed Zeeshan Haider Zaidi (known as Zeeshan Haider), who they say confessed to the crime, acted as mastermind, and was trained in Iran. Police fingered Zaidi as the leader of one of three teams and shooter and Adeel Raza as the driver of the motorcycle. According to the scenario sketched by police, the two pulled up on a motorcycle as Aftab was outside his home and Haider is believed to have shot him in the head. Alam took two bullets to his head and one other to his neck. The CTD spokesperson pointed to suspect Shah Gee, also transliterated as Ji, as the supplier of the 0.9mm pistol. Another team was led by Salman, also transliterated as Suleman. The same group from SMP was also held responsible by the CTD for killing two other men at a bakery in Nazimabad (5-B-1 area) of Karachi. The two men were also from the Deobandi sect. Another group was responsible for an attack that killed two at Rasheed Qaurma Hotel, also in Nazimabad. [2] [15] [16] [17] [10]

The main motive of the terrorists was to stoke sectarian violence by targeting members of the Deobandi sect. [18] The arrests were carried out between September 11 and 14 with Haider's arrest followed by the others implicated. A weapon and mobile phones were confiscated from the search and arrest. [8] [19]

Reactions

The Karachi Union of Journalists held a protest immediately after the murders of Arsad Ali Jaffery and Aftab Alam at the Karachi Press Club. [20]

Sindh Governor Dr. Ishratul Ebad Khan has condemned the killing of Jaffery and Alam. "The authorities need to further strengthen the existent security arrangements for the people, particularly journalists," he said. [21]

Khurshid Abbasi, secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), called the two murders a "conspiracy against the media." [1]

Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, "I condemn the killing of Arshad Ali Jaffari and Aftab Alam. Violence and fear must not be allowed to prevent journalists and media workers from doing their work. The safety of journalists and media workers is an essential condition for the press to keep the public informed. It is important that the authorities investigate these cases and bring those responsible for them to trial." [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azam Tariq (religious leader)</span> Pakistani politician

Azam Tariq was a Pakistani politician and Islamic scholar who was the leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). He was assassinated in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Pakistan</span>

The situation of human rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan</span> Sunni Islamist organisation in Pakistan

The Sipah-e-Sahaba (SS), also known as the Millat-e-Islamiyya (MI), is a banned Sunni Islamist Deobandi organisation in Pakistan. Founded by Pakistani cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in 1989 after breaking away from Sunni Deobandi party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), it was based in Jhang, Punjab, but had offices in all of Pakistan's provinces and territories. It operated as a federal and provincial political party until it was banned and outlawed as a terrorist organization by Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf in 2002. Even though it has been banned by the Pakistani government on numerous occasions, the Sipah-e-Sahaba has continued to operate under a different name throughout the country; it has significant underground support in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The organization was also banned by the United Kingdom, where there is a significant Pakistani diaspora population, in 2001.

Sectarian violence in Pakistan refers to violence directed against people and places in Pakistan motivated by antagonism toward the target's religious sect. As many as 4,000 Shia are estimated to have been killed in sectarian attacks in Pakistan between 1987 and 2007, and thousands more Shia have been killed by Salafi extremists from 2008 to 2014, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Sunni Sufis and Barelvis have also suffered from some sectarian violence, with attacks on religious shrines killing hundreds of worshippers, and some Deobandi leaders assassinated. Pakistan minority religious groups, including Hindus, Ahmadis, and Christians, have "faced unprecedented insecurity and persecution" in at least two recent years, according to Human Rights Watch. One significant aspect of the attacks in Pakistan is that militants often target their victims places of worship during prayers or religious services in order to maximize fatalities and to "emphasize the religious dimensions of their attack".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunni Tehreek</span> Political party in Pakistan

Pakistan Sunni Tehreek or simply Sunni Tehreek is a Pakistani Barlevi organization. The organization was founded by Muhammad Saleem Qadri in 1990 in order to prevent Barelevi mosques from being seized by Deobandi and Wahabi organizations. It also sees itself as a defender of Barelvis from attacks from Deobandis and Wahabi Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lashkar-e-Jhangvi</span> Jihadist militant organisation

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is a Deobandi supremacist, terrorist and militant organisation based in Afghanistan. The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shia party Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The LeJ was founded by former SSP activists Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori, and Ghulam Rasool Shah.

Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia is an Islamic University in Banoori Town, Karachi, Pakistan. The university continues the tradition of the Darul Uloom system initiated by Darul Uloom Deoband. As of 2007, there are about twelve thousand students in different departments of the Jamiah and its branches, including a number of foreign students from over sixty countries.

Dr. Athar Ali was a Pakistani system engineer and a rocket scientist who was murdered in Karachi on 4 October 2003. He was an expert in missile technology and was the senior scientist at the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) during the time of the development of Shaheen missile guidance system. SUPARCO is a Pakistani governmental agency. His death led to the mass demonstration in a Shiite community in Karachi.

Events from the year 2010 in Pakistan.

The 2010 Karachi riots started on August 3, 2010, after the assassination of Parliament member Raza Haider, a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement political party, on the night of August 2, 2010, in Karachi, Pakistan. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) blamed the Awami National Party, it's political rival, for the killing. Haider, was killed as he attended a funeral at a mosque.

Events in the year 2011 in Pakistan.

Wali Khan Babar was a Pakistani journalist working for GEO News who was killed by gunmen in the Liaquatabad area of Karachi. His murderers Saulat Mirza and Faisal Mota are sentenced to death by the court on March 10, 2015. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Babar was the first journalist it had confirmed killed in a work-related death in 2011. Pakistan was the deadliest country for journalists in 2010. Despite the murders of several people associated with the investigation and the death of an accused, in March 2014 four people were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder, and two others were given death sentences in absentia.

This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2004.

This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arshad Sharif</span> Pakistani journalist (1973–2022)

Arshad Sharif was a Pakistani journalist, writer, and news anchor. He specialized in investigative journalism and covered many political events in the country for national and international news organisations. On 23 March 2019, he was awarded the Pride of Performance by the President of Pakistan Arif Alvi, for his contribution to journalism. He was shot and killed by police in Kenya on 22 October 2022. A 592-page report by the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) revealed the killing to be a “planned targeted assassination," claiming that Kenyan police were "used as instruments." He was an outspoken critic of the Pakistani army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persecution of Hazaras in Quetta</span>

Hazaras have experienced a series of ethnically or religiously motivated attacks in Quetta, Pakistan.

This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2013. Some of the incidents are sectarian in nature and the TTP is responsible for a majority of them.

Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, better known as Mumtaz Qadri, was a Pakistani Elite Police commando who is known for murdering Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab. Qadri was a commando of the Elite Police and, at the time of the assassination, a member of the squad of personal bodyguards assigned to protect Taseer. A follower of the Barelvi version of Sunni Islam, he assassinated Taseer on 4 January 2011. He claimed to have killed the Governor because Taseer spoke in defense of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Qadri was convicted by the Islamabad High Court, sentenced to death and hanged in February 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persecution of Sufis</span>

Persecution of Sufis over the course of centuries has included acts of religious discrimination, persecution, and violence both by Sunni and Shia Muslims, such as destruction of Sufi shrines, tombs and mosques, suppression of Sufi orders, murder, and terrorism against adherents of Sufism in a number of Muslim-majority countries. The Republic of Turkey banned all Sufi orders and abolished their institutions in 1925, after Sufis opposed the new secular order. The Islamic Republic of Iran has harassed Sufis, reportedly for their lack of support for the government doctrine of "governance of the jurist".

MQM militancy refers to militancy in Pakistan associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement party.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Imtiaz Ali (September 10, 2015). "TV journalist shot dead in Karachi". dawn.com.
  2. 1 2 3 "Police arrest 4 suspects in Aftab Alam murder case". Daily Regional Times. September 22, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "ATC extends remand of journalist Aftab Alam's murder suspect". The News International. October 14, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Senior journalist Aftab Alam gunned down in Karachi – PAKISTAN – geo.tv". geo.tv. 9 September 2015.
  5. ↑ "Senior journalist Aftab Alam shot dead in Pakistan". Zee News.
  6. ↑ "Senior journalist Aftab Alam shot dead". Samaa TV.
  7. ↑ "Mastermind behind Aftab Alam's killing arrested". The News International, Pakistan. 13 September 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Four arrested in journalist Aftab Alam's murder". ruralmedianetworkpk.org. 15 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "Words of caution: Law enforcers brace for Muharram as terror threat looms large". The Express Tribune. October 15, 2015.
  10. 1 2 "Senior journalist Aftab Alam shot dead in Karachi". The Express Tribune. 9 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "Aftab Alam: Second Pakistan media worker shot dead in Karachi". BBC News. 9 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "Pakistan's Long War on the Media". New York Times. September 15, 2015.
  13. ↑ Rehman, Zia Ur (September 10, 2015). "A journalist's nightmare on Karachi streets". thenews.com.pk.
  14. ↑ "Reporter killed in third attack on Pakistani journalists in 24 hours". Committee to Protect Journalists. October 25, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Iranian trained hit-man has killed Pakistani journalist: Police". The Frontier Post. September 22, 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
  16. ↑ bin Perwaiz, Salis (September 22, 2015). "'Terrorist' held for murdering journalist". The News International.
  17. ↑ The Newspaper's Staff Reporter (10 September 2015). "Two men shot dead in North Karachi 'sectarian' attack". dawn.com.
  18. ↑ "Key Target Killers Held in Karachi". Pakistan Observer. September 14, 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-09-30.
  19. ↑ "Prime accused in senior journalist Aftab Alam's murder case caught – Pakistan – Dunya News". dunyanews.tv. 14 February 2008.
  20. ↑ "Journalist fraternity protests killing of Jaffery, Alam". ARY News. September 9, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Governor condemns killing of media men". thefrontierpost.com.[ permanent dead link ]
  22. ↑ "Director-General condemns killing of two media workers in Pakistan, Arshad Ali Jaffari and Aftab Alam". UNESCO Press. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. September 14, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.