Silencing the Voice of the Voiceless: Daily Tawar’s office attacked and destroyed.

Daily Tawar

Karachi:Unknown men broke into the office of Daily Tawar in Lyari region of Karachi in the early hours of Saturday morning stole the computers and set the office on fire. 

According local residents the intruders came in three unmarked cars around 4AM Saturday Morning. “They broke the main gate of Daily Tawar’s office and took all the computers with them. They also set the office on fire due to which all the copies of the newspaper and other apparatus burnt to ashes,” said the eye-witnesses.

Daily Tawar is an Urdu language Newspaper and is the only newspaper that represents the genuine aspirations of the Baloch people. 

The local authorities are in denial as usual. Talking to BBC Urdu SSP city Mr Jamal-ul-Rehman said the security forces did not carried any raids on the office of Daily Tawar. “Neither has anyone reported any such incident to us so far,” He added.

Media experts said that Daily Tawar’s office has been attacked and destroyed by Pakistani security agencies because of its coverage of state atrocities in Balochistan, especially, the cases of enforced-disappearances and recovery of bullet-ridden bodies of abducted Baloch. 

It is pertinent to mention that the state security agencies have abducted over 14,000 Baloch activists and among them over 650 have been killed under-custody. 

“Certainly this [attack] is a significant attempt to curtail the freedom of press and whoever carried out this attack has done wrong,” Journalist Mazhar Abbas told BBC Urdu. 

The editor of English Newspaper Daily Balochistan Express Mr Siddique Baloch said the attack on Daily Tawar was an attack on the freedom of Press. He further said Tawar is a small Newspaper and only 20-30 people worked for it. “All of them have now become unemployed because of the attack on Daily Tawar’s office,” Said Mr Siddique.

He urged the government and Media Organisations to take notice of the attack and destruction of Daily Tawar’s office. 

A Baloch journalist affiliated with Daily Tawar, who request anonymity, told BalochWarna News that most of the staff are scared to return to work. He said, “Many of our colleagues have already been abducted by Pakistani security forces and their bullet-riddle bodies were recovered. Recently Haji Razzaq Baloch was abducted and he is still missing. We fear same thing could happen to us if we return to work.”

He also alleged that the attack was carried out on the request of pro-Pakistan Baloch parliamentarian parties adding that, “In past BNP-Mengal activist have attacked our staff and burnt the copies of Daily Tawar on the orders of their senior leaders.”

Pictures of the Daily Tawar's destroyed office have been published by official Facebook page of DailyTawar:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?se ... 44.217188168422867&type=3