Mukkarem Khan Photo by Ishan Dawar

The perils of working as a journalist in conflict areas in Pakistan highlighted again this week with the assassination of radio and TV reporter Mukkaram Khan on 18 January. He is the 77th journalist to be killed in Pakistan since the "War on Terror" began

By Clas Thor, Fojo, Sweden

On the desk in my office I have kept some flip chart charts developed by a group of journalists during a recent course for "Training of Trainers" in Pakistan. The course was organised by IMS and Intermedia Pakistan in Islamabad in December 2011 and its headline was "Challenges". The task - to analyse today's situation in Pakistan and develop a role play as a tool for training of journalists in how to handle threats in their daily work.

Under this headline the group had listed the most significant threats against journalists. Amongst these were threats from militant groups and intelligence agencies, victimisation of reporters on the basis of FCR/tribal system in FATA and direct threats against reporters and editors due to "politically sensitive reporting".

One of the participants was a radio- and TV-reporter Mukarram Khan, 45 years old. Just one month later, on 18 January, he was shot during his evening prayer at the mosque.

Politically motivated murder

A colleague reported to us in the group of trainers directly afterwards: "He was seriously injured and taken to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, where he succumbed to six bullet wounds. Tejreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for this cowardly act, citing lack of coverage as a reason."

Mukkaram Khan was one of 12 journalists trained to be unofficial "ambassadors of journalistic safety" with the task to train colleagues around the country this year. He was based in the Mohmand tribal region and was experienced in working in a hostile environments.

A man of resourses

Already in 2011, after the U.S invasion in Afghanistan, he was captured by the Afghan Taliban near Khandar along with a French and another Pakistani reporter. However, Mukkaram Khan used the captivity in an unexpected way. He started work as a paid translator for the Taliban, as he was the only one who could understand English, Urdu and Pashto. See also thoughtful comments by Sadaf Khan here.

During our training he often returned to this experience and shared it with us as a "living example" of how to act or not to act when captured or facing the risk of being kidnapped. When standing in front of us he showed his strong and assertive personality, as well as his understanding and context of the region and the myriad of challenges that come with conflict and the way media work in the troubled border regions. He was an articulate and a clear thinker and when we parted after the training course he had contributed to inspiring the group in their new roles as trainers on safety matters.

In the course of the training, the group often came back to the rule: "You should bring the news, not become the news yourself." This week Mukkaram Khan tragically became the news He is the first Pakistani reporter to be killed this year and the 77th in the row of Pakistani reporters killed since the country became a frontline state in "The War on Terror".

"Ambassadors of journalistic safety" more important than ever

It would seem that Mukkarem Khan was aware that he had been identified as a target by his enemies for not covering the developments in the region according to their point of view. As a precautious matter Mukkaram Khan had moved from his hometown, but remained in FATA from where he reported to a number of national and international news bureaus. For the training group, whose aim it is to become "Ambassadors of journalistic safety" - and form a national and international community of journalists, the loss of Mukkram Khan is a great backlash.

Hopefully the response to honor Mukkaram Kahn, to support his family, and the strong national and international condemnations against the killing of him and other journalists will not be in vain. And as another member in the training group, Umer Draz Nangiana, wrote: "Hard to believe. The moment I heard the sad news, Mukkaram's voice and his picture flashed in my brain and it's been hard to remove it from there. We were together just a few days ago, discussing the same horrors in a calm and relax environment, not knowing that it could happen to one of us."