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KARACHI: Authorities in Pakistan’s Sindh province have set up a three-member committee to probe journalist Khawar Hussain’s death in the Sanghar district under mysterious circumstances, police said on Sunday.

Hussain’s body was recovered from his hometown of Sanghar outside a local restaurant on Hyderabad Road on Saturday night, according to police officials. The journalist sustained a gunshot wound to his head.

Police said the death appeared to be a suicide after they found a pistol clutched in Hussain’s hand at the site of the incident, local media reported. But the claim was widely rejected by Hussain’s friends and associates on social media.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah ordered a probe into the death, after which DIG Crime and Investigation Wing Amir Farooqi notified a three-member investigation committee on Sunday evening.

“The committee will do preliminary investigation and ascertain facts from all angles,” read a notification issued from Farooqi’s office.

“The complete report into the incident may be finalized in two days.”

The probe panel is headed by Azad Khan, additional inspector general of the Sindh counter-terrorism department (CTD), with DIG Karachi West Irfan Baloch and Sanghar SSP Abid Baloch as members.

Hussain was a Karachi-based correspondent for Dawn News. The news of his death drew condemnations from the Karachi Press Club and senior members of the Sindh government.

“Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has taken notice of the unnatural death of senior journalist Khawar Hussain in Sanghar,” a statement from Shah’s office said on Saturday.

“The chief minister has sought a report from the inspector general of police. The real cause of death must be determined through investigation.”

On Sunday, DIG Faisal Bashir Memon told Arab News the pistol clutched in Hussain’s hand at the time of his death belongs to the journalist who had been keeping it for personal safety.

“He parked his car and went to the restroom twice. According to the CCTV footage, he was alone. Khawar asked the hotel manager about the restroom, then returned to his car and sat inside. He stepped out of the car again and asked the watchman about the restroom. He went toward the restroom once more and then came back and sat in the car again,” Memon told Arab News.

“The CCTV camera was installed on the other side of the driver’s seat, and no one else was seen in the footage. The hotel manager later told the watchman to check if Khawar wanted to order something as he had been sitting [inside his car there] for quite a while. When the watchman went to the car, Khawar’s body was found inside with a gunshot wound.”
Police were awaiting the post-mortem report and the journalist’s call data record (CDR) as they intended to probe the death from both murder and suicide angles, according to DIG Memon.
As per a report released by the Pakistan-based media and development sector watchdog Freedom Network last year, 184 incidents of violence against journalists took place in Sindh between 2018 and 2023. These included the killings of 10 journalists in the province.

ISLAMABAD: The death toll from this week’s torrential rains and flooding in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has risen to 323 since Aug. 15, the KP Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Sunday, as federal authorities forecast more rains over the next 24 hours.

The cumulative death toll from rain-related incidents in Pakistan has surged to 657 since late June, when the monsoon rains first began in the country, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Apart from KP, 164 fatalities have been reported in Punjab, 32 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 28 in Sindh, 20 in Balochistan, 15 in Azad Kashmir and eight in the federal capital of Islamabad.

Raging hill torrents flattened several homes and swept away dozens of people in KP’s Swat, Buner, Bajaur, Torghar, Mansehra, Shangla and Battagram districts on Friday. Officials said several bodies were found on Sunday in the worst-hit Buner district.

“So far, 323 people have died and 156 people have been injured in various accidents due to rains and flash floods in the province,” the KP PDMA said on Sunday night.

“The deceased include 273 men, 29 women and 21 children, while the injured include 123 men, 23 women and 10 children.”

The rains, cloudbursts and deluges have damaged a total of 336 houses since Aug. 15, according to the PDMA report. Of these, 106 were completely destroyed. A total of 209 people have been displaced in Buner district, the most affected by Friday’s cloudburst and subsequent floods.

KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Sunday visited Buner, where he promised survivors compensation for their financial losses, urging residents of disaster-prone areas to relocate from there.

“The data of all the losses is being compiled,” CM Gandapur told reporters in Buner. “It is beyond our power to compensate the loss of lives, but we will compensate financial losses, damages to private property.”

Several people were still missing and search efforts were focused on areas where homes were flattened by water torrents that swept down from the mountains, carrying massive boulders that smashed into houses like explosions.

The NDMA has forecast more “heavy to very heavy rainfall” in parts of the country over the next 24 hours, particularly in Islamabad, KP, Punjab and Azad Kashmir, under the current weather system.

“Heavy to very heavy rainfall/thunderstorms are expected in Islamabad over the next 24 hours with occasional gaps. Most parts of Punjab will see widespread rainfall/thunderstorms. Districts in the Potohar and northeastern parts, including Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum, Chakwal, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Narowal, Hafizabad, and Mandi Bahauddin, are expected to face heavy to very heavy rainfall, increasing the chances of urban flooding,” it said on Sunday evening.

“Northern and upper KP districts, including Swat, Buner, Shangla, Dir, Mansehra, Battagram, Abbottabad, and Malakand, are expected to witness heavy spells, with flash floods and landslides possible in hilly terrain over the next 24 hours. The Peshawar valley, covering Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, and Swabi, will see scattered thunderstorms.”

In Azad Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Bagh, Haveli, Kotli, Mirpur and Bhimber are expected to receive heavy rainfall and thunderstorms, which may trigger landslides and flash flooding, particularly in hilly areas, according to the authority.

Isolated rainfall is expected in Gilgit, Skardu, Hunza, Ghizer, Diamer, Astore, Ghanche, and Shigar. Rainfall may cause debris flows, landslides, or local flooding in valleys. The southern province of Sindh and Balochistan may receive light to moderate rainfall.

The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall, vital for agriculture and food security, but also brings destruction.

“The intensity of this year’s monsoon is around 50 to 60 percent more than last year,” NDMA chief Lt. Gen. Inam Haider told journalists in Islamabad on Sunday.

“Two to three more monsoon spells are expected until the first weeks of September.”

Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency. Monsoon floods in 2022 submerged a third of the country and killed around 1,700 people.