The Peshawar bureau of The News International has worked under extraordinary conditions for more than two decades. For years, there were threats to media houses, bomb attacks, killings and kidnappings across the province. Yet the bureau staff and district correspondents continued to provide firsthand, verified reports to the readers of The News.
Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and particularly after 9/11, Khyber Pakahtunkhwa has generated more international headlines than most other regions of the country. The influx of millions of Afghan refugees, the war against al-Qaeda, military operations in the erstwhile FATA and Swat, suicide bombings, target killings and rocket attacks - these were recurring stories from KP that dominated national and international media for years. At a time when social media did not exist and television channels were few, reporters, desk staff, photographers and correspondents of The News worked relentlessly to dispatch timely updates.
The risks were real. The News correspondent Nasrullah Afridi was martyred in May 2011 when his car was struck by an improvised explosive device just 50 metres from the bureau office at Khyber Super Market in Peshawar Saddar. Musa Khan Khel, our correspondent from Swat, was killed in February 2009 while on duty. On several occasions, bombs exploded near our office, targeting politicians, security personnel and civilians. Some reporters and correspondents were picked up; others, including this scribe, narrowly escaped kidnapping attempts. Many received threats. Still, reporting continued with the same commitment to accuracy and public service.
Over the years, this writer covered some of the most tragic incidents in the province's history: the attack on the Army Public School, in which more than 140 children and staff were martyred; the shooting of Malala Yousafzai; the killings of senior politician Bashir Ahmad Bilour and Haroon Bilour; and the martyrdom of senior police officials Safwat Ghayur, Malik Muhammad Saad, Abid Ali and Ashraf Noor. The devastating car bomb in Meena Bazaar, which claimed over 137 lives and injured more than 200, and the Peshawar Police Lines attack, where more than 86 policemen were martyred, were among the many painful stories reported from the ground.
There are countless other stories that our team covered while living and working in an environment where journalism was never easy. That commitment to credible reporting earned The News a reputation as one of the most trusted and widely read English newspapers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for many years.
—The writer has been serving as Senior Staff Reporter with The News Peshawar Bureau since 2002 and former president of the Khyber Union of Journalists in 2002 and 2005
