A journalist working for the Voice of America was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, said the police. Mukarram Khan Atif was attacked at a mosque near his home in Shabqadar town, 35 km from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Two gunmen on motorcycles arrived at the mosque during evening prayers. One of them entered the mosque and shot Atif in the head before fleeing, said the police.
The attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is merely one in a long list of attacks on the media by extremist groups that would like to mandate what and how of free press. So, for the uninitiated, we take a stroll down recent times to see how the media and media persons have seen fearful responses to perceived transgressions.