Pakistani blogger and journalist known for criticising army hacked to death

Muhammad Bilal Khan, having over 16,000 followers on Twitter, 48,000 on his YouTube channel and 22,000 on Facebook, was with a friend when the incident took place

A 22-year-old Pakistani blogger and journalist known for criticising the country’s powerful military and the spy agency ISI was hacked to death by an unidentified man here, police said on Monday. 

Muhammad Bilal Khan, having over 16,000 followers on Twitter, 48,000 on his YouTube channel and 22,000 on Facebook, was with a friend when he received a phone call after which a man took him to the nearby forest on Sunday night, Dawn news quoted police as saying.

The suspect used a dagger to kill him, Superintendent of Police (SP) Saddar Malik Naeem said, adding that some people heard gunshot firing as well. Khan’s friend was seriously injured in the incident. Apart from being a social media activist, Muhammad Bilal Khan was also a freelance journalist. Soon after his killing, #Justice4MuhammadBilalKhan srtarted trending on social media.

Several Twitter users said that his criticism of the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) led to his killing. “Pakistani activist and journalist Mohammad Bilal Khan was shot dead last night in Islamabad. Khan was known for his criticism of the all-powerful military and its notorious spy agency,” a man said in a tweet.

The deceased’s father Abdullah said that his body had marks of a sharp tool. “My son’s only fault was that he spoke about the Prophet,” he said. A case was registered under various sections including the Anti Terrorism Act. The incident has created fear among people, Khan’s father said.

Pak responds to US, says ISI's 'links' with terrorists not same as support

After US' Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the ISI has links to terrorists, Pak attempted to defend itself by claiming that having links with such groups was not the same as supporting them

Pakistan's military establishment on Thursday attempted to draw a distinction between its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency "having links" with militant organisations and "supporting" such outfits, the Pakistan daily Dawn reported.

In a wide-ranging conference that saw the country's powerful military establishment discuss security issues, including internal security, civil-military relations, and relations with India, Afghanistan, and the US, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, hit out against allegations that the ISI has tied with militant organisations.

"Having links is different from supporting. Name any intelligence agency which does not have links. Links can be positive, and he [US Defence Secretary James Mattis] did not say there was support, so the narrative [against Pakistan's army and intelligence agencies] that I talked about is relevant here as well. We should not be a part of it. We have our own narrative," Ghafoor said, according to Dawn.

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Ghafoor's attempt at differentiating "links" from "support" came even as the country's civilian establishment, stung by remarks from US officials, sought to defend the ISI.

According to agency reports that cited Dawn, the Pakistani Foreign Office on Thursday refuted as "baseless" the remarks of a top US general who said the ISI has connections with terrorist groups.

"The US government and army cannot make Pakistan a scapegoat for its failures in Afghanistan," Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said....read more