On November 24, unknown assailants targeted female journalist, Ambreen Fatima, attacking her as she drove with family in the eastern city of Lahore. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemn the attack on Ambreen Fatima and call on the Pakistani government to immediately arrest the perpetrators and develop a security mechanism to ensure the safety of journalists in Pakistan. According to the first-information report (FIR), Ambreen Fatima, a senior journalist with Urdu-language newspaper Nawa-I-Waqt, along with her daughter and sister, left their home in a car and were attacked on an adjoining street. The unknown aggressors reportedly broke the car’s front windshield with an iron bar and hurled death threats at Fatima and her family before fleeing.

The incident comes days after Fatima’s husband, Ahmad Noorani, published an explosive story with Fact Focus on the controversies surrounding former chief justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar. Noorani is an investigative journalist in self-exile in the U.S. after he was assaulted in Islamabad in 2017. He is known for reporting critically on Pakistan’s administration.

The IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-2021, found that several key safety-related challenges adversely affected journalists and media workers in Pakistan. Compared to other South Asia countries, Pakistan had the highest number of journalist killings through the report’s monitoring period and the second-highest number of non-fatal attacks on journalists.