Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: The teenage children of martyred journalist Khalil Jibran Afridi were feeling a severe threat to their lives and said that their snooker club was torched in Sultankhel markets which was their lone source of income.
A 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter of the slain journalist Khalil Jibran Afridi said that they were feeling highly insecure after the murder of their father on June 18. They said that their snooker club was torched on Sunday further increasing their insecurity.
The Khalil’s son studying in 11 grade said that the family were still in trauma after his father was brutally murdered. He added that unidentified persons were bent upon depriving them of their only source of income by targeting their commercial property adjacent to their homes.
He added that those elements also threatened them with “dire consequences” if the snooker club was not immediately shut down.
“This market, with few shops, is now our only source of income while we now feel highly insecure and frightened after the Sunday night incident,” he added.
Khalil’s daughter said that their entire family was under tremendous mental stress as people could barge into their house anytime after burning their snooker club.
She was also worried about the continuation of their education, as they could not leave their house for fear of any reprisal from the people involved in Khalil’s murder.
“Our father was not only a journalist but a kind father and very keen about girls’ education,” she said.
The Khalil’s son and daughter insisted that their lives were under constant threat and that only an immediate relocation of their family to a safer place could provide them temporary relief and much-needed safety. They said that they did not register a First Information Report(FIR) out of fear.
They appealed to the journalists protection organizations, and the federal and provincial governments to seriously look into the two horrific incidents by constituting investigation teams and providing them with foolproof security and adequate compensation for the loss of their father and the burning of their commercial property.
District Police Officer Saleem Abbas Kulachi had told media that more than 13 suspects were part of the investigation into the murder case of Khalil Jibran but there was no major headway or progress in the investigation so far.
He added that although no FIR of the snooker club being torched was registered with the police, they had collected DVR footage, samples of broken glasses, handwritten pamphlets and other evidence from the site.
Sources said that district administration and security officials were contemplating the installation of closed-circuit security cameras at suitable places around the Mazreena area where Khalil was murdered, while checkposts would also be established at Sultankhel market to keep an eye on the movements of undesirable elements.
Unidentified armed men had killed a policeman in the area four months ago, while a taxi driver was also killed at Sultankhel market about a month ago by militants, who accused the deceased of being an informer of security forces.
Officials from the district administration said that though they had not received any formal request from the family members of the slain journalist about their shifting to a safer place, they had already initiated the process of prompt compensation to them after June 18.
It is worth mentioning here that senior journalists including this correspondent were also in danger after the death of Khalil Jibran Afridi. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) issued a threatening letter on June 18 warning journalists to support their agenda and write them martyred when they were being killed by Pakistani security forces.
