3 Pak journos get bullet 'warnings’

The Karachi Union of Journalists said an envelope containing a bullet was taped to the windscreen of one journalist, while envelopes -- each with a bullet inside -- were left inside the vehicles of the two others.

The action comes a week after a shadowy organisation with links to a party that supports military ruler President Pervez Musharraf issued a list of a dozen journalists, declaring them as "enemies".

The Mohajir Rabita Council, which published the list, has ties to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the ruling party in the volatile southern port city. Neither group could immediately be reached for comment.

"We believe it is a very serious threat to working journalists," Karachi Union of Journalists president Shahmim-ur Rehman said, without naming the journalists or the organisations involved.

"It is an attempt to muzzle the free media.... We have lodged a police report and we are demanding the government should arrest those behind the latest threat," he added.

"If the government fails to do so we will be justified in believing that there is complicity of the government in the current campaign to harass journalists."

Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi confirmed that police had registered a case and told AFP that he had set up a special team to investigate the incident.

Karachi has been tense since May 12 when clashes between rival political groups in the city left more than 40 people dead.

The bullet warnings follow what press and television organisations say is a sudden rise in pressure on the media in Pakistan amid a spiralling crisis engulfing Musharraf.

TV stations and newspaper offices have been attacked and journalists assaulted since Musharraf's suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9 sparked nationwide protests.