Taliban kill three TV station staff in Karachi

KARACHI: Taliban gunmen killed three men working for a private television station in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi on Friday, the station and the Islamist militant group said.

Gunmen on motorcycles shot dead a technician, guard and driver working for a private TV channel, the station said.

Regional Taliban spokesman Sajjad Mohmand claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to Reuters. "We will continue to target the media if they do not stop propaganda against Islam and the Taliban," he said.

Former Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told the station it had been attacked because the Taliban considered its coverage biased and the Taliban would continue to attack journalists they disagreed with.

"Channels should give coverage to our ideology. Otherwise we will continue attacking the media," the TV station broadcast him saying.

The same TV channel was attacked twice last year and several employees were injured.

Five journalists were killed in Pakistan last year. The Committee to Protect Journalists says it is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist. (Reuters)