DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Abducted journalist Javed Naseer Rind's name was added to the list of more than 10 journalists whose bodies were found tortured and dumped in Balochistan Pakistan.
Rind's bullet-riddled body was found dumped in Khuzdar, about 300 kilometers south of Quetta Pakistan, on Saturday morning. He was a senior sub editor at a local daily Tawar, a pro-nationalist newspaper.
"The victim was shot in the head and the bullet passed through the skull. The body bore multiple marks of brutal torture," doctors at the District Headquarters Hospital, Khuzdar said.
The Khuzdar police recovered Rind's body near Ghazgi Chowk and shifted it to the hospital. The officers found a slip from the body in which the man was identified as Javed Naseer Rind.
Rind was abducted on September 10 near his residence in the Mehmoodabad area of Hub Town, which shares a border with Karachi. His relatives had filed an FIR about the kidnapping at the Hub police station, but did not accuse anyone of the incident.
The Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) has condemned Rind's kidnapping and murder and has demanded that the government constitute a high-level committee to probe the incident. "On several occasions journalists demanded Rind's safe release but it fell on deaf ears," a press release issued by the BUJ said.
It further said that over 10 journalists were killed in Balochistan this year and no investigations have been carried out.
Journalists also raised the issue regarding Rind's disappearance at the South Asia Free Media Association (Safma) conference in Islamabad last month, expressing fear that he would be found dead.
Balochistan was the most dangerous region of the most dangerous country in the world for journalists in 2010. Of 97 journalists killed worldwide last year, 15 died in Pakistan. Of that number, six deaths were reported in Balochistan.
At least two other journalists have been killed in Balochistan this year. Ilyas Nazar, a journalist with the Baloch-language magazine Darwanth, was found dead in Pidarak, Balochistan on January 5. Like Rind, Nazar was killed by a gunshot wound to the head, and his body bore signs of torture.
Online News Network correspondent Muneer Shakir was shot dead on August 14 as he headed home from Khuzdar's press club.
Farooq Khan Masood is a freelance journalist, with experience in TV, radio, online and in print. He is based in Pakistan. Contact Farooq through NewsBlaze.
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