Profile: Who is Assad Toor?

Islamabad: Unknown masked men last week assaulted and injured a Pakistani journalist Asad Toor inside his house in the federal capital .

The attack triggered a wave of protests in the country as journalist united to show solidarity with the reporter. One of the protests held in Islamabad created a controversy after country’s premier intelligence was accused of being behind the attack, a claim that has been dismissed by the ISI.

Senior anchor Hamid Mir delivered a fiery speech and warned “unknown men” of attacking journalists.

Most of Pakistanis were not aware of Asad Toor as he has been a low profile reporter and made headlines only after being attacked.

Who is Asad Toor?

Asad belongs to Sargodha district of Punjab and has worked in Islamabad as a court reporter for a while now. He has been producer of Amber Raheem Shamsi talk-show on Samaa TV.

He has been associated with several media organization before launching his own YouTube channel Asad Toor “Uncensored”.

The journalist was accused of siding with Supreme Court judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa and his wife Serena Isa after the government had filed a reference against him.

Asad used to write detailed reports on the trial of Qazi Faez Isa in the Supreme Court where the judge defended himself against allegations of hiding his assets. The Supreme Court eventually cleared Isa of allegations levelled against him.

Asad Toor was recently criticized for launching “personal attacks” on TV anchor Shifa Yousafzai on his YouTube channel.