New York, August 11, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Pakistani authorities to drop all travel restrictions against independent journalist Asad Ali Toor, who was blocked from traveling to the United States at the Islamabad airport on August 8, according to the journalist.
Toor, who had been arrested and beaten prior years, said he was on his way to participate in a 12-day International Visitor Leadership Program arranged by the U.S. State Department when immigration authorities prevented him from boarding his flight, stating that his name had been added to a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) list that imposes temporary travel restrictions on Pakistan citizens.
In a separate incident, journalist Muhammad Akbar Notezai was summoned August 4 to the FIA’s Cyber Crimes Wing office in Quetta, where he was questioned for 30 minutes about an August 2024 investigative report on corruption in the construction of the Turbat-Buleda road in Balochistan, according to a journalist aware of the matter, media reports, and the summon letter reviewed by CPJ. The FIA alleged the report was defamatory, the journalist said.
“Pakistan’s security agencies must immediately stop the harassment of prominent journalists, and allow them to travel or report freely,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia-Pacific regional director. “Asad Ali Toor and Muhammad Akbar Notezai’s cases are yet the latest examples of how Pakistani security officials are tightening the space for impartial reporting, adding to the growing list of journalists targeted for their work, with some forced into exile.”
Toor had recently faced FIA-ordered blocks on his and his relatives’ bank accounts and on his YouTube channel, where he reports on Pakistan’s judiciary and current affairs.
In February 2024, the FIA arrested Toor over an alleged “explicit and malicious” campaign against Supreme Court judges. In May 2021, three unidentified men—one claiming to be from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency—beat, bound, and gagged Toor in his Islamabad apartment.
CPJ’s text message to Pakistan information minister Attaullah Tarar seeking comment on Toor’s travel ban and Notezai’s summon went unanswered.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.