The victim, Tahir Hussain, was working as crime reporter at a local English newspaper Frontier News.
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The assassins targeted Tahir, who was accompanied by a friend, in Mohalla Jangi. Doctors say he received six bullets – two of these in his head and another in heart. He was rushed to Lady Reading Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
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As the news of his murder spread, journalists gathered outside the local press club to protest the rising incidents of violence against journalists.
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Journalists are being targeted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for years. In one of such incidents, Noor-ul-Hassan was killed, as two bike riders opened fire on a moving car in Peshawar’s Sarband area a few months ago. Hassan belonged to Nowshera and was working as a reporter for a private news channel.
Reacting to the incident, Zulfiqar Mughal, the president of a representative body of journalists, described it as a brutal act and said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government must act quickly to arrest the killers and take practical steps to protect them.
Peshawar Press Club president Syed Bukhar Shah and Khyber Union of Journalists president Fida Khattak condemned the latest killing and summoned an urgent meeting, as Shah said police were unable to protect journalists amid a series of killings.