December 2, 2025
By Kaleem Ullah
LAHORE
The house of a well known journalist and social activist, Miraj Khalid Wazir, was blown up in the Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Responding to the incident Wazir posted on social media that armed men had targeted his house on basis of false propaganda. He explained that he was falsely accused of “handing over his house to the security forces,” while the reality was entirely different. “I have neither sold my house nor do I have any dispute with anyone, yet my home was destroyed without reason.”
Wazir said he had worked as a journalist in South Waziristan but was currently living in Dubai due to financial difficulties.
According to local residents, this is not the first time Miraj Khalid has faced such threats. Last year, the Qaumi Lashkar on the order of jirgah publicly announced that it would demolish Wazir’s house for providing the area’s news to the media. Although the police and security agencies prevented the demolition at the time, but the tribal jirgah expelled his family from the district and they had started living a life of displacement in Islamabad.
“I was forced to leave my ancestral home around three years ago and move to Islamabad, while a relative was taking care of the house,” said Wazir in the post. “Now the TTP has blown it up on an assumption that I have handed it over to the army, when In reality, I have never given my house to any institution, organization, or individual.”
The demolition of Miraj Khalid’s house has been claimed by a local commander of the banned outfit, in a video message. Meanwhile, political and social activists of the area strongly condemned the bombing of the journalist’s house, calling it a tragic and condemnable act.
According to local journalists, Wazir’s father-in-law and his family were living in the house when the Taliban approached them and ordered them to vacate it, claiming they had information that the house has been sold to the security forces. The militants said this was the reason they had come to demolish it. After the family had vacated, the Taliban entered the house, planted explosives, and blew it up. They also recorded a video from inside the house.
Chairman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and former Member of the National Assembly Mohsin Dawar condemned the incident.
“Taliban terrorists have blown up the house of Miraj Khalid Wazir in Azam Warsak, South Waziristan. Miraj Wazir is a respected journalist from South Waziristan who is being threatened for his reporting. The state has abandoned and thrown our people to the wolves,” said the political leader.
The police say that an investigation into the incident has been launched, and strict legal action will be taken against those involved.
The attack on Miraj Khalid Wazir’s home comes at a time when press freedom in Pakistan is facing one of its most dangerous periods in recent years. According to data compiled by the media and development watchdog Freedom Network, at least 142 cases of attacks and violations against journalists and other media professionals were recorded between November 2024 and September 2025—a nearly 60 percent increase from the previous year’s 57 cases. The report notes that during this period one journalist or media worker was killed for their work, while four others survived assassination attempts. It also recorded 30 instances of legal action against journalists, 15 arrests and detentions, 39 physical assaults, 30 offline or online threats, three cases of kidnapping or disappearance, and 10 cases of digital harassment.
The watchdog identifies Islamabad and Punjab as the most dangerous regions for journalists, each accounting for 28 percent of all reported violations, followed closely by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 27 percent. Sindh reported 10 cases, Balochistan seven, and Azad Jammu Kashmir six. These findings underline the increasingly hostile environment in which journalists operate in Pakistan—context that makes the demolition of Miraj Khalid Wazir’s house even more alarming.