Mukarram Khan Atif

Incident Description: Shot Dead

On January 17, 2012, a correspondent for Washington-based Pashto-language Deewa Radio and a reporter for a private TV channel Dunya News, Mukarram Khan Atif, 40, was gunned down by militants while he was offering prayers in a mosque in the Charsadda District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. According to press reports, a gunman entered the mosque where Atif was performing evening prayers and shot him several times.

He sustained multiple head injuries and was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition, but succumbed to his wounds. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the killing. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said they killed the journalist because he had refused to give coverage to the Taliban on his radio station. He claimed that they had advised the slain journalist repeatedly not to take sides while covering issues related to the Taliban.

The spokesman said Atif had been on their hit list and they finally eliminated him. He warned that other journalists were also on the hit list of the TTP and would be killed soon. President of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ) Safdar Hayat Dawar told PPF that Atif had received threats in the past from the Taliban in his hometown Mohmand Agency in erstwhile FATA and had moved to Charsadda.

Atif's brother Muslim Khan said that the slain journalist's case is not in court. No one was arrested and police has not investigated the case.