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KARACHI: A large number of Pakistani journalists gathered outside the press club in the southern city of Karachi on Tuesday to protest the killing of five Palestinian journalists, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif, in an Israeli strike on Gaza.

The demonstration came amid outrage over what journalist unions have called a targeted campaign against the press in the conflict-ridden Palestinian territory, where at least 269 journalists have been killed by Israel since Oct. 2023.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, around half of them women and children, with media workers reporting from the territory despite shortages of food, power and safety equipment amid Israeli blockades.

Speaking at the demonstration, Nasrullah Chaudhry, president of the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ), called the recent killing of journalists in Gaza a “massacre,” hailing Palestinian journalists for their courage and professional commitment.

“We pay tribute to the Palestinian journalists who brought truth to the world,” he said, adding that the Palestinian journalists were standing firm “in the face of historic oppression and hunger.”

Veteran Pakistani journalist Mazhar Abbas told Arab News the protest was not only about the deaths of Al Jazeera reporters, but part of a broader condemnation of Israel’s targeting of journalists in Gaza.

He said reporters in Gaza were being “particularly targeted,” not caught in crossfire, and the intent was to stop them from covering Israel’s war.

“They are targeting them to stop them from reporting,” Abbas said, adding that many journalists could not even report now “because of the lack of food.”

He described the scale of journalist deaths in Gaza as “unprecedented,” adding that such a large number of journalists had not been killed in any war or conflict.

“It is a genocide,” Abbas said, urging Pakistan’s parliament and the international community to raise their voice against Israeli military actions in Gaza.

Sohail Afzal Khan, the Karachi Press Club secretary, condemned what he called “Israel’s barbarism” and said all media organizations in Pakistan were participating in the protest to expose Israel’s brutality.

Amir Latif, assistant secretary of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), said the killing of Al-Sharif and his colleagues was a continuation of Israel’s policy of targeting media personnel.

“They are telling the truth to the world and Israel wants to hide the truth,” he said, criticizing the world for its silence and failure to act against Israeli attacks on journalists.

The protesting journalists called on international media bodies and rights organizations to pressure Israel to stop targeting the press and allow independent coverage of the conflict. They also urged the Pakistani government to raise the issue at the United Nations and other forums.

G.M. Jamali, a former PFUJ president, said Pakistani journalists should go a step further and write letters to world leaders demanding that Israel be declared a “terrorist state.”

“If journalists from Pakistan send letters across the world,” he said, “then at the very least, the image of Pakistani journalists will be seen positively that we made an effort.”

ISLAMABAD: Health authorities have detected poliovirus in 42 out of a total of 127 sewage samples collected from 87 districts nationwide, the country’s polio program said on Tuesday, amid a resurgence of polio cases in the South Asian country.

Polio is an infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. Protection requires every child under five to get repeated oral polio vaccine doses during each campaign and complete all essential immunizations on time.

Sample testing at the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Islamabad’s National Institute of Health confirmed 75 sewage samples as negative, while another 10 samples were being processed at the lab, according to the polio program.

One positive sample was reported from Balochistan, seven from KP, 12 from Punjab, 19 from Sindh and three from the capital city of Islamabad. Three samples in KP, four in Punjab along with one each in Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, were under process.

“While the overall trend shows a decline in positive detections, reflecting the impact of high-quality campaigns, the virus continues to circulate in certain areas,” the polio program said on Tuesday.

Pakistan has reported 19 polio cases so far this year. Of them, 12 came from the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province that has been identified as a high-risk zone for poliovirus transmission due to insecurity, vaccine hesitancy and operational challenges.

Over the past year, the polio program has conducted six high-quality vaccination campaigns, four of them nationwide, each reaching over 45 million children.

The next sub-national polio vaccination campaign is scheduled for September 1–7, 2025, aiming to vaccinate 28 million children across 91 districts in all provinces and regions.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic.

Islamabad made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021 but the country saw an intense resurgence of the poliovirus in 2024, with 74 cases reported.

Efforts to eradicate the virus have been repeatedly undermined by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners, who claim immunization is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for

Western espionage. Militant groups have frequently targeted polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them, particularly in KP and Balochistan.

“Polio eradication is a collective responsibility,” the polio program said. “While frontline workers deliver life-saving vaccines, parents, caregivers, and communities must ensure every child receives every dose, support vaccination teams, counter misinformation, and encourage timely immunization.”