A Pakistan journalist has been killed in a targeted attack in the Balochistan town of Hub, police officials say, with the armed militia Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claiming responsibility for the attack in a statement, Al Jazeera reported.
Shahid Zehri was killed while driving in his vehicle in the town of Hub, about 20 km (12 miles) west of Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, on Sunday evening, police say.
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The explosion appeared to have been caused by a magnetic device attached underneath the driving seat in Zehri’s vehicle, Younus Raza, a senior police official said.
“The [explosives were] right underneath the [driver’s] seat, so when it explodes it obviously goes upwards and destroys the seat as it does so,” he said, the report added.
Zehri, who covered Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, was a reporter with local television news channel, Metro 1.
Late on Sunday, the BLA armed group claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing Zehri of working with Pakistan’s security forces in a statement emailed to journalists.
Shahid Zehri, 35, who was associated with Metro 1 News, was travelling in a car in Hub when he was attacked reportedly with a homemade grenade, Dawn reported.
Zehri, who suffered critical injuries, and another injured companion were initially taken to Hub Civil Hospital and subsequently brought to the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, where Zehri was pronounced dead.
CCTV footage of the incident seen by Dawn.com showed an explosion took place on the roadside near Zehri’s moving car as soon as it made a U-turn on a busy road. The nature of the bomb could not be confirmed immediately.
