Senior Pak journalist found tortured, strangled to death

Islamabad, Apr 20: A fresh incident has once again proved that Pakistan is not a safe place for journalists when a senior journalist of Pakistan's

newspaper was found dead in a house in Karachi on Thursday.

The body of Murtaza Razvi was found in an apartment in the Defence Housing Authority area. Preliminary investigation reveals that he was strangled to death. The police also verified that his hands were tied and his body bore torture marks.

Rizvi was the senior assistant editor and head of magazines at Dawn. His family revealed that Rizvi did not have any personal enmity towards anyone. They have also requested the media not to engage in speculation till the real culprits are found.

Rizvi is survived by his widow and three daughters.

The fact that those in the media industry always face threats in Pakistan is no news at all. Only last year, a total of seven Pakistani journalists were killed, bringing the total to 29 deaths in the last five years involving journalists. This statistic was made available by media rights group Committee to Protect Journalists.

The other high profile journalist murder was of Saleem Shahzad, who was working as southeast Asia's bureau chief for Asia Times Online as well as for Italy's AKI news agency. He was also similarly found dead after he mysteriously disappeared from Islamabad in May last year. His body also bore marks of brutal torture and was recovered two days later 150 km from Islamabad.

OneIndia News