Protest continues against arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman

PESHAWAR: The members of the journalist community called for the Jang/Geo Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s release as they continued the protest against his arrest on Sunday.

They gathered outside the offices of Daily Jang, The News and Geo TV in the Khyber Super Market to protest the detention of the Jang Group chief.

The protesters raised slogans against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for targeting the independent media.

Those who spoke on the occasion included Jang Resident Editor Arshad Aziz Malik, Shakeel Farman Ali, Farmanullah Jan, Sabz Ali Shah, Gohar Ali, Qaiser Khan, Sheeba Haider and others.

The protesters slammed the PTI government for arresting Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman on false charges and keeping him behind bars for the last 193 days.

They said the Jang Group chief had been put under detention since March 12 to muffle the bold voices in the media. The speakers came down hard on the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and said it was targeting only the opposition parties and the non-pliant media houses. They said the so-called anti-graft watchdog was silent over the big corruption scandals linked to the ruling party members and was instead going after the opposition politicians and the free media.

The protesters implored the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of the case and provide justice to Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.