Journalist gunned down in Pakistan’s violent Baluchistan

New York, February 22, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists joins with the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) in calling for an investigation into the  drive-by shooting death of Abdost Rind, a 27-year-old part-time journalist in the Turbat area of Baluchistan province in Pakistan’s southwest on February 18.

According to the PFUJ and local media reports, Rind–a reporter with the Daily Eagle, an Urdu-language newspaper–was shot four times before his assailants escaped on a motorcycle. He died immediately. While the PFUJ says Rind’s family believes his killing is directly related to his work as a journalist, the group called for a swift police investigation to accurately determine the motive behind the killing and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“CPJ joins with our Pakistani colleagues in calling for a swift investigation into the shooting death of Abdost Rind,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Pakistan’s reputation as a country where journalists are killed with impunity is among the worst in the world. To allow Rind’s death to go uninvestigated and unprosecuted will only add to that miserable record.”

With eight clearly killed for their work as journalists in 2010, and several other cases in which the motive was unclear, Pakistan ranked at the top of the list of countries in which journalists are killed for their work last year, according to CPJ data. The country also ranked 10th on CPJ’s Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are slain and killers go free.