Isis: Daesh claims terror attack on ARY Pakistan TV offices in Islamabad

The Islamic State (Isis) terrorist organisation has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Pakistani TV station in its latest attempt to stifle free speech. The Daesh (Isis) extremists threw explosives and fired upon the headquarters of ARY Pakistan TV in Islamabad on Wednesday 13 November.

The two assailants, who arrived on motorbikes, quickly fled when security guards returned fire, ARY TV claimed. But not before throwing a number of threatening pamphlets outside the building accusing the TV station of "concealing facts".

One of the stations employees was struck in the head by shrapnel and so far no arrest has been made. A radio broadcast made by Isis on 14 January later claimed responsibility for the attack.

The leaflets left by the attackers urged the TV station not to side with an "apostate army and government of Pakistan in their global crusade against Islam by concealing facts." Isis, which is also known as Daesh, added that it will treat the media outlet as an extension of the military and said not to claim "this was an attack on journalistic freedom".

Security analyst Amir Rana said that the Muslim extremists are increasing attacks in Pakistan and they need to be stopped before they take part in larger operations. "At the moment their visibility is low, so it is the time that authorities move swiftly against ISIS people before they can launch any big attack," he told AFP.

It is the latest Isis attack against the media after the beheading of US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley. Earlier this week, three Isis sympathisers were charged by Turkish prosecutors for murdering film director Naji Jerf - a member of the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) organisation.

Pakistani police said on 30 December they arrested eight suspected IS extremists after a raid in the central province of Punjab. Police said that at least three of the arrested men had been to Iraq to receive military training.

At least 14 people were killed following a powerful bomb blast near a polio centre in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday 13 January. Twenty-three people were injured, eight of them critically - with no group yet taking responsibility.

On the same day an Isis suicide bombing followed by gunfire rocked an area near the Pakistani consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. The attack left seven people dead. In a brutal offensive in May last year IS claimed responsibility for the killing of at least 43 members of a Shia minority in the southern port city of Karachi.