LONDON: Media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists on Friday urged Pakistani authorities to investigate a shooting attack on the home of journalist Ihsan Khattak.

On Feb. 12, at about 9:45 p.m., unidentified gunmen opened fire on the main gate of Khattak’s house in Kotka Jandar Khel village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district. The assailants fled and Khattak was not injured.

“Pakistani authorities must thoroughly investigate the attack on Ihsan Khattak’s home, identify the gunmen, and hold them to account,” said the CPJ’s Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi.

“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has become increasingly dangerous for journalists and this type of brazen intimidation cannot stand. Journalists must be able to work safely so they can provide the public with information.”

Khattak, a Bannu-based correspondent for ARY News and former president of the Bannu Press Club, has faced threats before.

On Feb. 5, three armed men on a motorbike followed him from a reporting assignment, forcing him to speed away in his car, he told the CPJ.

In 2017, after receiving threats from an unknown caller, he relocated to Islamabad. He said the threats resumed after he returned to Bannu in 2023.

Bannu Deputy Inspector General of Police Sajjad Khan told the CPJ that an investigation had been opened into the shooting and that police were committed to ensuring journalists’ security.

The incident comes as the CPJ and 17 other press freedom and human rights groups this week urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take urgent steps to “uphold the country’s constitutional and international obligations” to protect media freedom.

They warned that recent legal and institutional changes, combined with “persistent failures” to hold perpetrators accountable, have deepened a climate of fear for journalists.

Pakistan, ranked 158th in the 2025 press freedom index, is considered one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, with growing self-censorship, digital controls and widespread impunity for attacks on media workers.

The appeal also follows a sharp escalation in regional tensions: on Friday, Pakistan said it had carried out strikes on Taliban government forces in several Afghan cities — its first direct attacks on its former allies —describing the situation as “open war.”