QUETTA: A senior journalist was killed in a powerful blast that claimed at least two other lives in Pakistan’s volatile southwestern Balochistan province, confirmed a senior administration official on Friday, after a motorcyclist attached an explosive device to his vehicle at a bustling market area.

The incident that took place in Khuzdar, a remote city in the region, on World Press Freedom Day sent shockwaves through the media community in the province that has witnessed much violence in the last couple of decades.

Maulvi Muhammad Siddique Mengal, the targeted journalist, was currently the president of the Khuzdar Press Club and had also received threats from unknown individuals in the past.

“President of the Khuzdar Press Club Maulvi Muhammad Siddique Mengal and two bike riders near his vehicle were killed in the attack,” Deputy Commissioner Khuzdar Arif Khan Zarkoon told Arab News after the emergence of the CCTV footage of the attack. “Five people were injured who were shifted to the District Hospital Khuzdar for treatment.”

“Mengal was traveling in his private vehicle to a mosque to offer Friday prayers when an unknown man attached a magnetic explosive device to his vehicle which exploded at Chamrook Chowk and killed him on the spot,” he added.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Maulvi Siddique Mengal had been receiving threats from unknown people for the last year,” said one of the local journalists who requested anonymity. “He survived a firing attack nine months ago. Journalism has become a life-threatening profession in Khuzdar. We even closed Khuzdar Press Club for more than six months after threats by unknown people in 2012.”

Pakistan is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, particularly for those working in the country’s western Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international organization working for journalists’ safety, at least 62 media workers have been killed in targeted attacks in Pakistan since 1992.

The Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) has strongly condemned Mengal’s murder, demanding the arrest of the perpetrators of the Khuzdar blast.

Khalil ur Rehman, the BUJ president, said targeting a journalist on World Press Freedom Day was an attempt to suppress the voice of media workers in Balochistan.

“Forty-two journalists have lost their lives in Balochistan over the last two decades, while 10 journalists were killed in Khuzdar district during the last decade, but not a single murderer of journalists has been arrested yet,” he told Arab News. “Journalists in Balochistan are already facing security challenges, but this attack indicates that targeted attacks against journalists have started again.”

Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, chief minister of Balochistan, has strongly condemned Mengal’s killing, ordering an investigation into it.

“The Balochistan government will utilize all resources to arrest the perpetrators involved in the killing of the senior journalist in Khuzdar,” he said in a statement. “Terrorists involved in sabotaging peace in Balochistan won’t succeed.”

OSLO: Pakistan has extradited to Norway a man suspected of masterminding an Oslo shooting on the eve of a 2022 festival, Norwegian authorities said on Friday.
On the night of June 25, 2022, just hours before the parade was to take place, a man opened fire outside two bars in central Oslo, including a well-known gay club, killing two men and wounding nine others.
The suspected shooter, Zaniar Matapour, a 44-year-old Norwegian of Iranian origin, is currently on trial accused of an “act of terror.”
Matapour has pleaded not guilty, and psychiatric experts are at odds over his mental health and thereby his legal responsibility.
Arfan Bhatti, a 46-year-old who has lived and is well known in Norway, is suspected of having planned the attack but left Norway for Pakistan before the shooting.
Even though Norway and Pakistan have no agreement on extraditions, Pakistani authorities agreed to grant Oslo’s request.
“Arfan Bhatti is now on a plane escorted by Norwegian police,” Norway’s Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl told reporters on Friday.
Bhatti, who denies any involvement and had opposed extradition, will be placed in custody on arrival in Oslo, Norwegian police said.
He is suspected of being an “accomplice to an aggravated act of terror,” a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
Bhatti is expected to be called to testify during Matapour’s trial, police said.
Bhatti’s lawyer was angry that his client was extradited before Pakistan’s supreme court had a chance to rule on his case.
“This way of doing things calls into question the respect of law and international legal principles,” John Christian Elden said.