Pakistan is among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalism, France-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual press freedom report last May.

A journalist was shot dead by unidentified assailants in a high-security zone in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi, according to a media report.

Anjum Muneer Raja, 40, was returning home on a motorcycle late on Thursday when the bike-borne attackers waylaid him and opened fire, the police said.

The incident occurred on the Bank Road, minutes away from the Pakistani military’s national headquarters, the Dawn News reported.

‘Attackers fled’

Raja was shot six times in the head, neck and torso, killing him instantly, the report said, adding the attackers then fled.

Raja was father to a five-year-old boy and used to teach at a school in the mornings and worked as a sub-editor for a Islamabad-based Urdu newspaper in the evenings, his uncle Tariq Mehmood said.

Mr. Mehmood said his nephew did not have personal enmity with anyone and expressed shock over the killing in such a “highly-secured” area, according to the report.

The journalist community condemned Raja’s murder and demanded immediate arrest of the attackers.

They also demanded protection for all journalists and threatened protests if Raja’s killers were not arrested soon. Last year, prominent reporter Ahmed Noorani was also savagely beaten and stabbed in the head after being dragged out of his car in Islamabad by armed assailants.