• Miscreants target Khyber News reporter in Mazreena area: DPO.
• Journalist’s friend Sajjad Advocate also receives injuries in attack.
• CM Gandapur takes notice, orders immediate arrest of culprits.

KHYBER: A senior journalist Khalil Jibran has been killed by unidentified gunmen near his residence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Landi Kotal town, police said Wednesday.

Jibran, who was associated with a private news channel — Khyber News — was targeted by unidentified miscreants on a motorcycle when he was heading towards his residence with his friend Sajjad Advocate, District Police Officer (DPO) Khyber Salim Abbas said.

He detailed that the journalist’s car developed a fault near his home when the gunmen surrounded him, dragged him out of his vehicle and opened fire at him.

Jibran, who was also former president of the Landi Kotal Press Club, died on the spot and Sajjad got wounded while the culprits fled from the scene. His body was shifted to a Landi Kotal hospital for post mortem, the police officer said.

The incident took place in Mazreena area in the vicinity of Landi Kotal Police Station, he added.

Abbas claimed that Jibran had also received threats from terrorists.

KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur took notice of the incident and ordered authorities concerned to immediate arrest the culprits behind the journalist’s killing.

KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi also condemned Jibran’s murder.

The Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AEMEND) strongly condemned the gruesome murder of the Khyber News’ reporter and demanded the KP chief minister and federal interior minister to bring Jibran’s killers to justice.

In a statement, the association criticised the higher authorities’ failures to stop such incidents as journalists were continuously facing torture, abductions and threats across the country.

Last month, another journalist from a Sindhi newspaper, Nasrullah Gadani, was targeted by unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants near Korai Goth, 12 kilometres from Mirpur Mathelo, leaving him seriously wounded on May 21.

Gadani was, at the time of the unfortunate incident, riding his motorcycle. Following the attack, police shifted him to Civil Hospital Mirpur Mathelo, where he received emergency medical aid and was then sent to Rahim Yar Khan for surgery.

Later, he was shifted to Karachi via an air ambulance for better treatment, with the Sindh government announcing to bear all of his medical costs.

However, even shifting him to a better hospital could not bear fruit as he succumbed to his wounds around three days later and breathed his last.