Islamabad: A 22-year-old Pakistani blogger and journalist known for criticising the country’s powerful military and the spy agency ISI was hacked to death by an unidentified man here, police said on Monday.
Muhammad Bilal Khan, having over 16,000 followers on Twitter, 48,000 on his YouTube channel and 22,000 on Facebook, was with a friend when he received a phone call after which a man took him to the nearby forest on Sunday night, Dawn news quoted police as saying.
The suspect used a dagger to kill him, Superintendent of Police (SP) Saddar Malik Naeem said, adding some people heard gunshot firing as well. Khan’s friend was seriously injured. Apart from being a social media activist, Khan was also a freelance journalist.
Soon after his killing, #Justice4MuhammadBilalKhan srtarted trending on social media. Several Twitter users said his criticism of the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) led to his killing.
“Pakistani activist and journalist Mohammad Bilal Khan was shot dead last night in Islamabad. Khan was known for his criticism of the all-powerful military and its notorious spy agency,” a man tweeted. The deceased’s father Abdullah said his body had marks of a sharp tool. “My son’s only fault was he spoke about the Prophet,” he said.