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| Journalists find bullets in their vehicle in Karachi | | |
KARACHI, MAY 29
In the latest threat against the free media in Pakistan, three journalists attached with foreign news wire services in this port city found blank envelopes containing live bullets inside their vehicles.
The three were also included in a list of some 20 journalists who were issued veiled threats by Mohajir Rabita Council, an ethnic party, because of their coverage of the May 12 political violence in Karachi in which some 42 people were killed.
Zarar Khan (Associated Press), Mazhar Abbas (AFP) and Asif Hasan (AFP Photographer) were shocked to discover brown envelopes with bullets in their vehicles when they left the press club located in the heart of the city last night.
"It is obviously a message to us. It is a threat to us," one of them said.
Relations between journalists and the Mutthaida Qaumi Movement, a coalition partner in the President Pervez Musharraf's government, have deteriorated after the May 12 violence as MQM officials believe the coverage of the incidents by some journalists was negative and biased.
Opposition parties have widely blamed the MQM for the violence in Karachi. Shortly after the May 12 violence, the Mohajir Rabita Council had come out with their list.
Mazhar Abbas, who is also the secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, said they had lodged a complaint with the city police chief and drawn his attention to the incident.
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