PAKISTAN: Press Club Blames Militants for Blast, Vows to Write Truth

By Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, Dec 23 — The administration of the Peshawar Press Club has blamed militants for Tuesday’s blast and has vowed to expose those killing innocent people in the country.

“The midday suicide attack on the Peshawar Press Club is a practical manifestation of the militants, threats being hurled at the journalists' community from the past two years,” Shamim Shahid, president of Peshawar Press Club, said.

He said that the attack was long overdue and paid tributes to the slain head constable Riazuddin Khan, who by virtue of his bravery, denied entry to the attacker leaving him with no option except blowing himself up at the entrance before proceeding to the main building.

According to him, Tuesday’s suicide attack was no different from others taking place in parts of the country.

“We aren’t scared of such attacks at all and won’t mend our ways upon direction from militants. The militants want journalists to stop writing about their wrongdoings but we will continue to show real picture to the people”, he said.

Shamim said that freedom of expression was the right of everyone living in this country and no one is authorised under the law to deny them their basic right. The public, he said, also now know that the militants were doing a disservice to Islam and Muslims.

PPC’s general secretary Muhammad Ali Khan said that there would be no activity at the club for the next two days as a mark of protest over the incident and said that the explosion had rather emboldened the local journalists.

Bomb and suicide attacks on police, army, schools, CD shops and NGO offices are now stories of the past in the dictionary of militants because they had already targeted several mosques and innocent women and children in the name of Islam, he said.

He said that members of the PPC and the Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ) will wear black arm bands to mourn the deaths of people killed in the attack. Security, he said, had further been tightened to ensure that the press club could perform its role of imparting education and credible information.

Khan said that police was investigating the case.