Aziz Memon

Incident Description: Body recovered

On February 16, 2020, the body of a journalist associated with KTN news channel and Sindhi-language daily Kawish, Aziz Memon, was found in a water channel in Mehrabpur city of Sindh's Naushahro Firoze district. Quoting sources, Dawn reported that before he went missing, Memon had asked a cameraman he worked with to drive him to a location where he was to attend a ceremony.

Villagers later spotted his body in the canal. According to the report, the journalist “often received threats of dire consequences during his 30-year-long career”. One such threat was from a Member of the National Assembly, after which Memon left his hometown and moved to Islamabad for some time. According to reports, about a year before his death, Memon had released a video in which he said that officials from the ruling party in Sindh province, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), along with the local police had threatened him over his reporting.

Memon’s reporting had included the allegation that people were paid to attend PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s train March. In the wake of Memon’s death, federal minister Fawad Chaudhry had requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to “take notice of the mysterious death” of the journalist. Meanwhile, Bilawal had also condemned the murder and added that journalists should work with their allies, Dawn reported.

A joint investigation team (JIT) was also set up by the provincial government to probe the death.

In April, Memon’s DNA report was released, which according to Dawn, had “found traces of some other human DNA”. However, a meeting of the JIT said this did not prove that Memon had been murdered. A month later, on May 30, Dawn reported that the JIT had concluded that the case was a “well-planned murder”. Three suspects had been arrested earlier, however, the prime suspect, Mushtaq Sehto, and four other individuals alleged to be his accomplices were still at large.

In June, two more suspects — Zafar Sehto and Zulfiqar Sehto — were booked for Memon's murder and were sent to jail on judicial remand.