Taliban claim responsibility for attack on TV channel's van in Pakistan's Karachi

Taliban on Monday claimed responsibility for the Sunday night's attack on a private TV channel's van in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, which left an assistant cameraman killed, local media reported.

Express News said that the spokesman of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took credit of the gun attack at Samaa TV's Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) van, in a statement.

"The media is not impartial and we've issued several warnings to them," the spokesman Mohammad Khorasani said in a statement.

Samma TV said on its website that DSNG was on its way to cover an attack on police when it came under attack.

The attackers were following the DSNG on a motorbike and sprayed bullets on it near Five Star Chowrangi of Karachi, the capital city of the country's south Sindh province.

Two of the bullets hit the head and chest of the 22-year-old assistant cameraman Taimoor Abbasi who was rushed to a nearby hospital in a critical condition where he succumbed to injuries.

Police said that the attack is apparently carried out by a group of insurgents who earlier attacked DSNGs of local News channels including Samaa and Geo TV earlier in 2014 and 2015.

He said that a report has been lodged against the militants and search for them is underway.

The country's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also condemned the incident, terming it an "attack on the freedom of speech." Endit