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Zardari seeks probe into attack on journalist

By IANS,

Islamabad : Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has sought an inquiry report on the attack on a journalist in Peshawar.

Hazrat Khan, bureau chief of Pashto-channel AVT Khyber, was attacked by unknown assailants when he was returning from hospital Monday after inquiring about the health of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister Sardar Hussain Babak who was hurt in an ambush.

The assailants first manhandled and then threw stones and bricks at him.

Zardari condemned the attack and sought an inquiry report from the authorities concerned, reported Associated Press of Pakistan.

The incident comes just over a week after a Pakistani journalist was shot dead in Balochistan province.

Munir Ahmed Shahkir, a senior journalist with the Waqt News newspaper, was shot several times and rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries Aug 14.

On Aug 10, a journalist was manhandled for exposing malpractices at a premier hospital in Karachi.

Journalist Saleem Shahzad, 40, was kidnapped in Islamabad May 29. Two days later, his body, bearing marks of severe torture, was found dumped in a canal in Punjab province.

Shahzad is widely believed to have been picked up by intelligence officials for alleging in an article that terrorists attacked a key naval base in Karachi May 22 after the navy refused to free sailors held for suspected militant links.

In June, a journalist working for Britain’s Guardian newspaper was attacked by policemen apparently over his appearance in a TV talk show.