DANGER PERSISTS FOR REPORTERS IN PAKISTAN, DESPITE VOW TO PROTECT THEM

[So far this year five journalists have been killed on the job; another 44 have been killed in the past decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a lobbying group based in New York. And the effect beyond just the deadly cases is both wide and deep: Countless other reporters in Pakistan have been kidnapped, beaten or otherwise intimidated because of their work.]

By Salman Masood

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The killers were waiting for Ayub Khattak, a small-town reporter in northwestern Pakistan, as he returned to his house one evening in October. They gunned him down just outside his door.

Mr. Khattak, who worked for a small local paper and Jang, Pakistan’s biggest news daily, died instantly. His assailants sped away on a motorbike, unmolested. And across the rest of Pakistan, small protests by journalists quickly fizzled out.

In Pakistan, one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, the death of a reporter sometimes barely makes the news. And despite promises by a new government in recent months that protecting journalists is vital, the problem has continued, and even intensified.

So far this year five journalists have been killed on the job; another 44 have been killed in the past decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a lobbying group based in New York. And the effect beyond just the deadly cases is both wide and deep: Countless other reporters in Pakistan have been kidnapped, beaten or otherwise intimidated because of their work.

Part of the problem is that the attackers come from every side. It is not just insurgents and criminals who are targeting reporters, but also, most chillingly, operatives from Pakistan’s civilian and military intelligence agencies. Human rights groups say the security services have a long record of violence and impunity, and that has continued unabated.

“Things are getting worse,” said Bob Dietz, Asia coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Journalists are vulnerable to pressure from all sides.”

The most perilous reporting beats are in conflict-affected provinces such as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where Mr. Khattak worked, or Baluchistan, where a nationalist insurgency has been raging. But not always: attacks on reporters are also rising in Karachi, the country’s largest city, experts say.

Pakistani reporters who work with Western news media organizations face particular dangers — especially when covering sensitive stories that reflect poorly on the security services. That has included the aftermath of the attack on Malala Yousafzai, the teenage education activist who was shot by the Taliban in the northwestern Swat Valley in 2012.

Ms. Yousafzai, who survived her injuries, has gone on to become a global celebrity. She recently met with President Obama and Queen Elizabeth II, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But at home, the spotlight on her case has angered both the Taliban and the authorities.

At first, the Taliban criticized several Western news outlets, including Reuters and the B.B.C., for their coverage of her case, forcing some correspondents to temporarily leave Pakistan. There has also been speculation that the security forces, which have effectively run the Swat region since 2009, have also been unhappy about the attention.

Sana ul Haq, a freelance journalist in Swat, said he was abducted, interrogated and beaten for 11 hours on Oct. 14 by men he believed were intelligence officials. He said the men had made clear that his offense had been helping two New York Times reporters gauge local reaction to the news of Ms. Yousafzai’s Nobel Prize nomination just days before.

Mr. Haq said the men grabbed him as he was walking home around 7 p.m., then blindfolded and drove him away in an unmarked Jeep. He was taken to a location about 30 minutes away where he was questioned for about 10 hours by three men, two of whom were masked.

The men questioned him about his work and accused him of being a traitor to Pakistan and an American spy. Mr. Haq insisted he was working only as a journalist, but the men accused him of lying, periodically beating him with their fists and a leather whip, leaving extensive bruising on his torso, head and legs. They also kicked him between the legs.

Mr. Haq’s abductors released him at dawn the following morning, dropping him on the roadside in Mingora, and warning him to tell no one of his experience.

His abductors showed detailed knowledge of New York Times reporting activities in Pakistan, and repeatedly asked about and referred to Declan Walsh, the newspaper’s bureau chief for Pakistan, who was expelled from the country in May with no explanation and has remained blocked from returning.

The ordeal left Mr. Haq with extensive bruising and some back injuries, and he said he felt newly vulnerable. Last week he received two anonymous phone calls, warning him to stop his freelance work for The Times.

“I am still confused about what happened,” Mr. Haq said, recalling his ordeal. “I am a patriotic Pakistani. I have done nothing wrong. I kept asking them that they should tell me my mistake.”

A spokesman of the Pakistani Army denied that the military was involved in Mr. Haq’s abduction or in the case of Muhammad Zaib Mansoor, a journalist who was reported missing from Malakand District, near Swat, by Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group, on Oct. 18.

“None of these people were either picked up or detained by the military authorities,” the spokesman said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government said it was interested in protecting journalists. On Oct. 8 the Information Minister, Pervaiz Rashid, said he would support a proposed United Nations investigation into attacks on journalists.

But attacks on journalists have seldom been solved, and justice has been elusive.

In 2011, Syed Saleem Shahzad, a reporter, was abducted from central Islamabad and killed hours later under mysterious circumstances. At the time, many journalists blamed the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate spy agency for his death.

The military denied the accusations, and the government ordered a judicial inquiry into the controversy, but it failed to identify the culprits and was widely viewed as a whitewash.

“We see them still active,” said Mr. Dietz, referring to the intelligence services.

The “ground zero” for attacks on journalists, Mr. Dietz said, was in western Baluchistan, where several dozen journalists have been killed in recent years. But, he added, the dangers are heightened by the fact that some journalists are also activists for the nationalist cause.

“There is growing discussion on who is a journalist in Baluchistan,” Mr. Dietz said.

In Karachi, however, the greatest danger comes from political parties. Wali Babar, a reporter for GEO news network, was gunned down in traffic there in 2011. A police report said he was killed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a political party that dominates the city.

The party has denied the accusation, and police investigations into the case have seemingly gone nowhere. Several witnesses and investigators in the case have been killed.

 @ The New York Times