Journalists Killed in 2012 - Motive Confirmed: Abdul Haq Baloch

ARY Television
September 29, 2012, in Khuzdar, Pakistan

Unidentified assailants shot Baloch as he was leaving the Khuzdar Press Club in the city of Khuzdar in Baluchistan province. Baloch was the secretary-general of the press club and a long-time local correspondent for ARY Television.

ARY Television said it had not been aware of any threats directed at Baloch. But Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist, wrote after Baloch's death that the journalist had been threatened by the Baloch Musalah Diffa Army, or BMDA, in November 2011 and had subsequently been named on a hit list issued by a BMDA spokesman.

Tensions with the press had escalated after the Baluchistan High Court barred news coverage of banned groups in October 2011. Several of the banned groups began threatening local journalists for not reporting on their militant operations.

Baloch's family declined to discuss widespread speculation that security forces were angry that the journalist was working with the families of missing Baluchis to present cases before the Quetta bench of the Supreme Court. At the time of Baloch's death, the court was hearing more than 100 missing persons cases in Baluchistan. Of those cases, 19 were from Khuzdar.