Wali Khan Babar

Incident Description: Shot Dead

On January 13, 2011, a reporter for Geo News, Wali Khan Babar, 29, was gunned down by unidentified armed men in Karachi. Babar received five bullets — two in his forehead, one in the jaw and two in his neck. He was killed shortly after covering an operation against drug-traffickers in the Pehalwan Goth area of the city. According to press reports, Babar was returning home from the Geo News office after performing his professional responsibilities, when two assailants on a motorcycle intercepted his car at 9:21pm and shot him five times through the driver’s window at close range.

Eyewitnesses told journalists that Babar’s car was stopped by the attackers who, after confirming his identity, shot him dead. Then Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Sultan Khawaja, ruled out attempted robbery as the motive behind the firing, saying “it appeared to be a premeditated murder”. Although they were not able to pinpoint the exact reason for his death, a number of his senior colleagues at Geo News believed that Babar was killed as a result of his journalistic work.

Managing Director of Geo Television Network, Azhar Abbas, said that they didn’t know who was behind it, but they would definitely take it as a message for the entire media community. He had added that this reflected a dangerous trend of intolerance aimed at targeting media personnel who reveal the truth. No one had claimed responsibility for the murder. The police lodged a criminal complaint filed by the deceased’s brother, Muhammad Khan Babar.

Babar left behind his widowed mother, three sisters and four brothers.

On June 15, 2020, Babar’s alleged killer was arrested. Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon said Kamran alias Zeeshan Shani was arrested in a joint operation. The Express Tribune reported, that nearly a decade after Babar’s murder, his killer was arrested in a joint operation of the Special Investigation Unit police and the Federal Investigation Agency in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Maymar area.

Karachi Additional Inspector General (AIG) Ghulam Nabi Memon said that Kamran alias Zeeshan Shani, previously convicted for the murder, was “directly responsible for the killing, as he had been the one to open fire at the slain newsman”. Additionally, the AIG said that as per Kamran’s confession, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement London’s South Africa chapter had been involved in Babar’s murder.

“Babar was killed because he was considered close to the Awami National Party (ANP) and would report anti-Altaf Hussain stories," the report quoted. As per The News, till 2015 four accused in the case had received life imprisonment; one suspect — Faisal Mota — was arrested and Shani was at large and kept changing his hideouts. He added that initially eight were accused with one, Liaquat Ali, being killed in an encounter.

Five witnesses in the case — Rajab Bangali, Naveed Ahmed Tanoli, Arshad Kundi, Muhammad Asif and Haider Ali — had been murdered. The prosecutor of the case, Naimat Ali Randhawa, was also killed. The provincial government filed an application in the SHC requesting the court to transfer the case to Shikarpur, owing to the security risk to the people involved in the case.

The request was granted and the case proceeded in Shikarpur.