16 April 2010
Malik Arif
Explosion
Samaa TV cameraman Malik Arif was killed in a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital and five journalists – Noor Elahi Bugti of Samaa TV, Salman Ashraf of Geo TV, Fareed Ahmed of Dunya TV, Khalil Ahmed of Express TV and Malik Sohail of Aaj TV – were wounded.
The journalists were at the hospital to film a gathering by Shiites in support of a Shiite businessman who had been the target of a murder attempt. Seven other people were killed in the bombing, which bore the hallmarks of a Sunni jihadist action. “When all the businessman’s friends and all the journalists had gathered at the hospital, a suicide bomber came up, opened fire and then blew himself up in the middle of the crowd,” Quetta-based journalist Malik Siraj told Reporters Without Borders. A journalist for 30 years and father of four children, Malik Arif was the second journalist to be killed in Pakistan since the start of this year.
