Attack type Armed attack Deaths 3 | Weapons 9mm. Perpetrators 2 | |
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Target Online International News Network Victims 2 journalists, 1 media worker | ||
Attack on the Online International News Network is about the attack on the office of the news agency, located in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan, on 28 August 2014 that resulted in the killing of journalists Irshad Mastoi and Ghulam Rasool, as well as accountant Mohammed Younus.
Contents
The attack
On August 28 two gunman broke into Mastoi's office, located on the second story of the Kabirwala Building, Jinnah Road in downtown Quetta. Senior journalist Mastio and two others were gunned down by a 9mm. The other victims were trainee reporter Ghulam Rasool, also known as Abdul Rasul, and accountant Mohammed Younus. Mastio was the first killed, and it was later reported that he had been receiving threats. Some of Mastio's colleagues think that his article about the Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti’s 8th death anniversary was the motive for his murder. Only Rasul, a student at the University of Balochistan in Quetta, made it to the hospital, where he died from his wounds.
Arrest
Arrests were made a full year after the murder. The two arrested men were brought to a press conference presented by Sarfaraz Bugti, who is the provincial home minister in Balochistan. Bugti announced their affiliation with the Balochistan Liberation Army, who are secessionists, played a tape of their confession, and also accused the suspects of killing Habib Jalib Baloch, leader of the Balochistan National Party, in 2010. In all the suspects were accused by Bugti of killing 27 people. The suspects were identified by Bugti as Shafqat Ali Rohdini, also known as Naveed, from Khuzdar and Mohammad Ibrahieem, a.k.a. Shah Jee, from Quetta.
Personal background
Irshad Mastoi, also known as Arshad Mustoi was originally from the city of Jacobabad. He was a father to three children that were all under the age of four at the time of his death. He was 34 at the time he was murdered and is buried in the cemetery known as Numaish Ground in Jacobabad.
Career
Mastoi was the bureau chief at Online International News Network and news assignment editor at ARY News.
Mastoi's career had been rocky for a while. In December 2009 while covering the signing ceremony of the 7th NFC award in Gwadar he got shocked by a wire to close to his hotel window. His hand hit it while trying to discard a cigarette and resulted in his right hand having to be amputated. After months of depression he overcame odds and started typing with his left hand. He had hopes of getting aid from an international or national organization to get a bionic arm but had no such luck.
Mastio held the position of general secretary of Balochistan Union of Journalists.
Context
As the leader of the BUJ, Mastoi focused on the difficulty that journalists in the Balochistan media face, especially those that are killed because of it. He also kept a list of targeted journalists. He was quoted:
"There is no security for journalists in Balochistan. We lost our many friends but not a single perpetrator of the crime was booked. We are facing constant threats to our lives."
Journalists in this place often live in fear. After Mastio's death his family, friends and colleagues said that he had been threatened by many people such as sectarian and militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhengvi and Baloch security agencies. He even told a friend that he was receiving threats over the phone shortly before he was killed.
According to the research of CPJ the people in Baluchistan face a great deal of criminal activity. Daily disappearances and targeted killings are nothing out of the ordinary here. International Journalists are even denied access to the province.
Impact
At the time of the attack, one journalist had tallied 23 journalists that had been killed in the area between 2004 and 2014. The number of journalists worldwide killed in 2014 alone number 14, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Reactions
After the death of Irshad Mastio, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists asked that all its members to protest in an attempt to condemn his killing.
Jiand Baloch, spokesperson for the Baloch Liberation Army, claims that Pakistan is using the attack on the Online International News Network and Mastoi's murder as a "malicious conspiracy."
Mastio was one of the fourteen journalist honored by the Newseum on June 9, 2015. The chief executive officer of the Newseum, Peter Prichard, said that "It is right, and just, that we pause today in our busy lives to remember what these journalists did, and why they did it." Kathy Gannon spoke of the dangers that journalists face, "As journalists, we join this profession because we are curious. We who go off to conflict areas are satisfying that curiosity to understand the why and how of war, and most especially, the who of those caught in the middle, the people."