ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A veteran Pakistani journalist who criticized the country’s strong military unit was shot dead near his home on Tuesday, but survived, officials said.
The shooting caused a stir in the community of Pakistani journalists, who came under increasing pressure from the military and its allies in the nation’s ruling party.
Journalist Absar Alam, who also served as chairman of the country’s electronic media regulator, was injured when he was shot during an evening walk in a park near his residence in Islamabad on Tuesday. Officials said Mr Alam was in stable condition.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the country’s interior minister, said he had ordered an investigation, and intelligence minister Fawad Chaudhry condemned what he called an assassination attempt.
In a video message shortly after the shooting, Mr Alam said he was hit in the ribs by a bullet and said he did not know the gunman. “I will not lose hope and I will not be discouraged by such deeds,” Mr Alam said in the video as he was being transported to a nearby hospital. “This is my message to the people who shot me.”
Mr Alam made no specific allegations about who might be behind the attack. But many journalists noticed that just two days before, he posted tweets accusing the country’s powerful intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who pressured him in 2018 to show critical coverage of the previous government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz or PML-N, during anti-government protests.
Mr Alam has mentioned threats to his life before and is seen as sympathetic to the PML-N party, which has criticized the army for holding power.
Attacks and threats against journalists have become commonplace in Pakistan. One of the most notable attacks took place in 2014, when the influential showman Hamid Mir was shot and injured in Karachi, in an assault that his family blamed on the country’s intelligence agencies.
On Tuesday, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and leader of the PML-N party, condemned the attack on Mr Alam.
“The silence of the voice of dissent is a cancer that has affected this country for many years,” she said in a post on Twitter. “Absar Alam Sahab is the latest victim of this cruel and barbaric crime.”