Young social media activist killed in capital
ISLAMABAD: Mohammed Bilal Khan, a 22-yearold blogger, has been killed in Islamabad, Superintendent of Police (SP) Saddar Malik Naeem said on Monday.
Naeem said that Bilal Khan, who was with a friend, was atacked in the G-9/4 area of the federal capital. Bilal was killed while his uncle Ehtesham was severely injured. He is currently at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad.
Another local police official Ayaz Khan says Bilal Khan was killed on Sunday night, drawing condemnation from his friends on social media.
According to the police official, Bilal Khan — who has over 16,000 followers on Twiter, over 48,000 on his Youtube channel and over 22,000 followers on Facebook — received a phone called to go from the Bara Kahu area in Islamabad to G-9, where a man took him into the forest.
The suspect, as per Naeem, used a dagger to murder him. Police added that the sound of firing had also been heard.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered with Karachi Company police station by the victim’s father Abdullah under Section 302 (premeditated murder), 304 (proof of qatl-iamd liable to qisas), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act (ATA).
As per Bilal’s father Abdullah, he was at his cousin’s house in Bara Kahu, when he received a call from a cousin (Ehtesham) that he and Abdullah’s son had been atacked by unidentified individuals and were injured. He said that when he reached PIMS emergency, his son had passed away. Abdullah added that various parts of his body had marks of a sharp tool.
Abdullah said that the incident had created fear among people and called for strict action to be taken against the suspects who had killed his son and injured his cousin.
The late blogger’s phone is in police custody where the record is being accessed. The father of the deceased, seen in a video addressing a group of men, said that his son had no personal enmity. He said his son spent his life talking about Islam.
My son’s “only fault was that he spoke about the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and his companions,” he added, saying he was proud of his son.
In addition to his activism, Bilawal was a freelance journalist.