Voa reporter laid to rest in Shabqadar

Ashrafuddin Pirzada

SHABQADAR: A Voice of America Deewa Radio reporter who was assassinated last night in Shabqadar was laid to rest.

Mukarram Khan Atif, resident of Mohmand Agency, was assassinated by two assailants on Tuesday when he was offering Maghrib prayer in a local mosque. He was killed on the spot while the leading prayer, Pesh Emam,Nasru Menallah, got serious injuries, family sources said.

The nephew of Mukarram Khan Atif, Arshad who was the eyewitness said that he was offering Maghrib prayer with him when someone opened fire at him from backside and all of his sudden he fall down. He said that though he was expired on the spot but for their satisfaction he was rushed to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar where he was stated dead. He further said that two assailants did crime within few second and fled the scene.

When his coffin was brought to the graveyard in Shabqadar thousands of people including journalists, officials, civil society members, elders and family members of the slain journalist broke into tear and offered special prayers for his departed soul. His funeral prayer was offered at 11 am amid tight security measure by security forces, sources said.

Fata former president Safdar Hayat Dawar on the occasion told reporters that he and other senior tribal reporters have received calls after the assassination of Mukarram that they will also hit other tribal journalists as they were working for CIA and other foreign agencies. Another Peshawar based senior journalist said that militants had called him and warned the other journalists for the same fate. He said that militants exposed two names of Geo enchor Kamran Khan and news caster Muhammad Junaid that they will soon target them as they preaching against them.Adding they also not spare other journalists as they have already compiled their list.  

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 Mukarram Khan Atif, 45 had got married before 20 years but still he had no successors. After long discussion and on the family request he engaged with a girl recently and he was about to get married in March first week, Arshad said. Mukarram was a senior tribal journalist working for VOA Deewa Radio in Mohmand Agency and Dunya TV. According to family members and close friends, Mukarram Khan Atif had several times received threats and warnings from militants that he was working for CIA and propagating US agenda in tribal areas.

A senior journalist said that Mukarram had told him that during the last few months he received ten threating calls phone calls which compelled him to leave Mohmand agency and resided in the nearby town Shabqadar. He was also feeling unsafe there and last week he took a home in Peshawar but did not shift.