Muhammad Ashraf

Summary of Case

On January 17, 2014, three Express News staffers — technician, Waqas Aziz Khan, van driver, Muhammad Khalid, and security guard, Muhammad Ashraf — were killed when unknown armed men riding on motorcycles opened fire at the stationery Digital Satellite News Gathering van (DSNG) van of the channel in Karachi. Khalid was survived by his wife and three children, Khan was the eldest of two siblings while Ashraf had just married three months prior to the incident.

The government announced compensation of Rs0.5 million for each of the victim’s family. All three victims seated in the front of the van received bullets and were rushed to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. “They were shot multiple times from close range and died due to excessive blood loss,” said a medico-legal officer at the hospital. This was the third and most lethal attack on the Express Media Group and its staff in a five month span.

In the previous attacks, the main offices of Express Media Group were targeted. Soon after the attack, in a live telephone call to an anchor person of Express News, former spokesperson for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Ehsanullah Ehsan, claimed responsibility for the killings. “At present, Pakistani media is playing the role of (enemies and spread) venomous propaganda against Tehreek-e-Taliban. They have assumed the (role of) opposition.

Wed had intimated the media earlier and warn it once again that (they must) side with us in this venomous propaganda,” he said. In response to the incident, the government constituted a two-member committee, comprising then Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, and Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, to contact media houses and journalists’ bodies to devise a strategy for security of journalists.

Summary of Case

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