Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014 | TechNews Journalists close Quetta press club to mourn killing of colleagues Shireen Gul COPY EDITOR I have been working as a journal- ist for the past seven years, and every year, I hear about the death of my fellow journalists in Pakistan. It really pinches me thinking about the fact that I am here, all safe doing whatever I wish to, but my people are not safe. I’m tired df this violence, I’m tired of the pain I feel and still can’t help it. I’m tired of being on the road, lonely as a robin in the rain. I want to run away from all this, but will it bring a change in my society? I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. It aches like pieces of glass in my body; it feels like scars on the sou of humanity. I’m tired of all the times I’ve wanted to help and couldn’t. I want to do something at least that would bring a little hope to people who lost their families, their friends, their whole lives and have been torn apart in just a second. I’m tired of being in the dark of this ruthless war of injustice. Mostly it’s all about the pain. There’s too much that words can’t explain. If I could end it, I would have, but there is no hope for humanity. I wonder what can relieve these people, what can change their fate. On August 28, gunmen barged into the oflice of he Online News Agency and killed its Bureau Chief Irshad Mastoi, Reporter Abdul Rasool and Accountant Muhammad Younas. Since then the Press Clubs across Baluchistan, like elsewhere in Pakistan, remained closed to protest against what journalists describe as the inability of law enforcing agencies to trace the murderers of senior journalist Irshad Matoi and his two colleagues who were gunned down inside their office. The strike was called by Pakistan Federal Union of Iournalists (PFUI) and Paki- stan Press Clubs Council. It is the first ever ex- treme step taken by journalists to shut down the Press Clubs in Pakistan. The protesting journalists hoisted black flags on top of their press clubs. Journalists pitched strike camps outside the Press Clubs. The police and law enforcing agen- cies have so far failed to find any clue regarding the killings, Baluchistan Union of Iournalists (BUI) demanded the government announce compensation for the grieving families of the journalists who were brutally murdered in Baluchistan. Again, my question is, will this thing stop the killers from killing the innocent people, or will it bring their loved ones back to life? No, it will do nothing. Instead of giving them money, why don’t they have a better law and order system, which will stop people from killing others. Why don’t they pass such laws which will stop the terrorists from spreading violence in my country? Why can’t we live in peace like other countries? The President of BU], Irfan Saeed, says that journalists will observe a hunger strike, if there is no progress in investigation. “This is a serious issue and we will not give up until the culprits are arrested,” Saeed said. President of Quetta Press Club, Raza Ur Rehman said the recent killings have sent a shockwave among the journalists who are now working under immense fear. “This cul— ture of impunity should end now. Law enforc- ers should expedite investigation and trace the culprits. We will not further tolerate any neg- ligence on the part of law enforcing agencies,” he said. Senior Journalist Shahzada Zulfiqar quoted that journalists are on protest for the unending targeted killings of their colleagues. This is the first time when I have seen such uni- ty in them. I wish they would have learned this lesson the easier way, but I guess sometimes, it better to learn it the other way around. BU] announced that in the next phase, the journalists will observe hunger strike to put pressure on law enforcers to ful- fill their responsibility and this statement was given last week. Until now, there has been no progress, so I am afraid they will definitely start their hunger strike. I just hope and wish that the government will take notice of this and will help them out. My country bleeds again and I mourn, I mourn for its fate, its destiny, and its people. IEEE @ ||T fi Vijai Baska: COPY EDITOR The Institute of Electrical and Elec- tronics Engineers (IEEE) at IIT held their first general body meeting of the semester on Thursday, September 17, in the Stuart Building auditorium. The newly elected president, Rohit Agarwal, final year Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) student, introduced the newly elected board members to all the attend- ees of the meeting. He also mentioned that there was an open board position and encour- aged students to apply for the it and the com— mittees headed by variousboard members. Agarwal also shared information rst Fall 2014 about the upcoming events that are scheduled for this semester and asked the students who were interested to register for those events, some of them being: the 4th IEEE Great Lakes Symposium and the IEEE Xtreme Competi- tion, The IEEEXtreme is a 24 hour program— ming competition where there are up to three members in a team. Only registered IEEE stu- dent are allowed to participate and the event, which is to be held on October 18, has a lot of prizes to be given to the winners. Interested students can register for the event at www.ieee. org/xtreme. He then spoke about the IEEE mem- bership as a whole and how to become a mem— ber of the organization. He also gave detailed insight into the benefits one gets by registering general body meeting as an IEEE national member. The Great Lakes Symposium will be hosted by the Galvin center at Hermann Hall. This is a wonderful opportunity for budding electrical engineers, especially in the field of grid technology, and an excellent platform to show their knowledge about it. Registration is free for IEEE members. More information about the event is available at http://great- lakessymposiumnetl. Project Chair, Ming Chen, men- tioned the current projects under “IEEE @ IIT” namely, Multi Touch Surface, Guitar Am- plifier, Quadcopter, and Ardupilot (Arduino Pilot.) There were also a couple of new proj- ects added this semester, one using Microsoft Kinect to build apps and another in coopera- tion with the American Institute of Aeronau~ tics and Astronautics (AIAA) which involves building a UAV and using it as a counter- poaching method in wildlife areas. Interested students can sign up for these projects at ieee. iit.edu. IEEE was also present at the IIT Explore on Friday, September 19, showcasing the projects at their stall and explaining them to people who stopped by. Most of those who stopped by, expressed a lot of interest in these projects and signed up for them. It was a great initiative on behalf of the IEEE board to reach out to students who could not turn up for the general body meeting a couple days back. Photos by Vijai Baskar