Islamabad (AFP)
Two Pakistani journalists were jailed for three days and tortured for showing an unhealthy quarantine zone in southwest Balochistan province on the border with Afghanistan, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported on Tuesday.
"The (local) administration did not like our coverage", which showed the lack of water and other basic services in the center, Saeed Ali Achakzai, who after being summoned on Saturday with a colleague by the security forces, was transferred to another paramilitary group.
"They covered our eyes (...) and then started beating us with sticks and fiber optic cables," said the Samaa TV reporter. "At one point, I thought," I'm not going to get out of it. They're going to kill me. "
Photos transmitted to AFP show the backs marked with blows and bruises of the two journalists, released Monday evening after three days in "isolation cell", according to Achakzai.
Another quarantine facility established in Baluchistan to fight the spread of the new coronavirus had already made headlines in February for its unsanitary conditions.
"It is absolutely unacceptable that representatives of the security forces commit acts of torture simply because they did not like what these two journalists reported," said Daniel Bastard, the manager of the Asia-Pacific office. from RSF.
Questioned by AFP, Ziaullah Langove, the Minister of the Interior of Balochistan, said he was "sorry for the torture suffered". An investigation has started and "three officials directly involved in the incident have been suspended," he added.
Seven journalists were killed in Pakistan because of their profession between May 2019 and April last, according to the "Freedom Network", a group defending the freedom of the press which denounces a "worrying escalation of the climate of intimidation and harassment" in the country.
The body of a Pakistani journalist, Sajid Hussain, was found in late April in Sweden, the country which had granted him asylum and whose police have not completely ruled the criminal track.
Hailing from Balochistan, Pakistan's most volatile province, Mr. Hussain was a well-known journalist whose work focused on drug trafficking, enforced disappearances and the region's insurgency.
According to RSF, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a Pakistani military intelligence agency, is in possession of a list of exiled journalists under surveillance.
© 2020 AFP