Home Latest News Newspaper Journalist Placed on Pakistan’s Exit Control List

Newspaper Journalist Placed on Pakistan’s Exit Control List

by AFP
Farooq Naeem—AFP

File Photo. Farooq Naeem—AFP

Cyril Almeida banned from leaving country days after report alleging rift between military, civilian leaders.

Pakistan’s government has imposed a travel ban on a journalist for the daily Dawn after he sparked uproar by claiming in a report that civilian officials had clashed with the military over its covert support for militants.

Cyril Almeida, an assistant editor at Dawn, the country’s oldest and most prestigious English daily, announced early Tuesday he had been placed on the “Exit Control List.”

The report published Friday prompted threats on social media and was denied three times by the office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “I am told and have been informed and have been shown evidence that I am on the Exit Control List,” he tweeted, followed a short time later by “I feel sad tonight. This is my life, my country. What went wrong.”

In his report, Almeida claimed leading civilian officials had warned the Army to renounce covert support for proxy fighters such as the Haqqani network allied to the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks—or face international isolation for Pakistan.

Pakistan was left deeply embarrassed last month after it had to postpone a regional summit following the withdrawals of India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan. India has sought to diplomatically isolate Pakistan following a raid on one of its bases in the disputed region of Kashmir, which killed 19 soldiers and triggered public fury. New Delhi alleges the group that mounted the raid was based in Pakistan, which Islamabad has repeatedly denied.

Kabul meanwhile accuses of Islamabad of failing to bring its influence to bear over the Afghan Taliban, whose leaders Pakistan hosts in Quetta.

Citing sources present at a high-level meeting, Almeida claimed the civilian government had issued a blunt warning as part of a new high-stakes strategy: do not interfere with the police when they take action “against militant groups that are banned or until now considered off-limits for civilian action.”

For years Pakistan has been accused of cracking down on only those Islamist groups which have turned their guns inward on the state, while harboring those who fight abroad for its strategic ends. Reporting critical of the military is considered a major red flag among the Pakistani media, with journalists at times detained, beaten and even killed.

Human Rights Watch accused the Inter-Services Intelligence agency of the 2011 killing of national security journalist Saleem Shahzad, an allegation the agency denied.

In a highly unusual move, the office of Prime Minister Sharif denied Almeida’s report three times and “directed that those responsible should be identified for stern action.” A statement issued to media even claimed that the matter had been specifically discussed during a meeting between Sharif and Army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif.

The paper itself, which was set up by the country’s founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah, says it stands by the article.

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1 comment

azzy October 11, 2016 - 3:16 pm

This traitor concocted a false story merely to malign Pakistan and should be incarcerated for 10 years, and the Dawn newspaper sealed for six months.

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