Pakistan reporter held for having ‘provocative literature’

KARACHI, Pakistan – A defence lawyer says a journalist who was taken away by unidentified security forces over the weekend has been charged with possessing “provocative literature.”

Nasrullah Khan, a subeditor for a local daily in Karachi, was taken from his home early Saturday by uniformed and plainclothes men and held incommunicado for two days.

On Monday, after protests by local journalists, he appeared in an anti-terrorism court. Defence lawyer Haider Imam Rizvi says the “so-called charge” stems from a jihadi magazine found in his client’s apartment. He says Khan was confined illegally and only handed over to police after the protests.

Several journalists and bloggers say they have been detained or threatened in recent months after writing critically about Pakistan’s powerful security agencies.