KARACHI: A large number of Pakistani journalists gathered outside the press club in the southern city of Karachi on Tuesday to protest the killing of five Palestinian journalists, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif, in an Israeli strike on Gaza.
The demonstration came amid outrage over what journalist unions have called a targeted campaign against the press in the conflict-ridden Palestinian territory, where at least 269 journalists have been killed by Israel since Oct. 2023.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, around half of them women and children, with media workers reporting from the territory despite shortages of food, power and safety equipment amid Israeli blockades.
Speaking at the demonstration, Nasrullah Chaudhry, president of the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ), called the recent killing of journalists in Gaza a “massacre,” hailing Palestinian journalists for their courage and professional commitment.
“We pay tribute to the Palestinian journalists who brought truth to the world,” he said, adding that the Palestinian journalists were standing firm “in the face of historic oppression and hunger.”
