Malik Siraj Akbar

Malik Siraj Akbar is a Pakistani journalist based in Washington. He founded the first Baloch online newspaper, The Baloch Hal.

Blog | Pakistan

Why I fled Pakistan

By Malik Siraj Akbar/CPJ Guest Blogger

In May 2006, at the age of 23, I joined the Daily Times, Pakistan's most liberal English-language newspaper, as a bureau chief. I was perhaps the youngest bureau chief to cover the country's largest province, Baluchistan, and its longstanding, deadly insurgency. I covered fierce military operations, daily bomb blasts, rocket attacks, enforced disappearances, torture of political activists, and high-profile political assassinations.

In 2008, I got an exclusive interview with Bramdagh Bugti, Pakistan's most wanted separatist leader. I also spoke to top civil and military officers. In November 2009, I founded the Baloch Hal, (Hal means "news" in English) the first online newspaper in Baluchistan, the country's most impoverished region.

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Blog | Pakistan

Baluchistan's press under siege

By Malik Siraj Akbar/CPJ Guest Blogger

Reporters in Pakistan's conflict-stricken province of Baluchistan have been organizing to display their anger against the continued death threats they have been receiving from government secret services, religious militant groups, and armed nationalist organizations. Their most recent demonstration on October 1 was only one in a string of protests to confront the problem.

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