Unusual investigation into journalist’s murder leads to arrests

Reporters Without Borders pays tribute to the investigation being conducted by the Karachi police into the murder of Geo News TV reporter Wali Khan Babar, who was gunned down on 14 January, just minutes after submitting a report about two Karachi gangs. The police announced on 7 April that they arrested four suspects the previous day. “This is the first time in the world’s most dangerous country for journalists that the authorities have carried out an investigation leading to the identification of a reporter’s murderers,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We salute this courageous effort, which has cost the lives of several people, and we urge the police to complete the job so that the case can come to trial.” Karachi police chief Saud Mirza told a news conference that there would be more arrests in the days to come. “We believe up to 18 persons were involved in the journalist’s murder and one of the accomplices is believed to have gone abroad,” Mirza said. The four suspects were arrested when police stopped a suspicious-looking vehicle in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, one of Karachi’s 18 districts. The police chief said an initial attempt was made to kill Babar on 13 January. The next day he was murdered after being followed from his place of work. A brother of one of the police officers investigating the murder was himself killed on 5 April. An informer of one of the officers in charge of the investigation has also been killed.