Second journalist shot dead in two days: just what is happening in Pakistan?

A senior Pakistani journalist has been killed in the second deadly attack on the media in two days.

Aftab Alam, 42, who previously worked for Pakistan's largest satellite channel Geo TV, was shot in the head outside his home in the southern port city Karachi, said Feroz Shah, a city police chief.

Eyewitnesses told police that two gunmen riding a motorbike fired at Alam while he was getting into his car.

There has been no immediate indication about the motive but media rights groups believe it was part of a series of ongoing targeted killings against media professionals.

On 8 September, gunmen fired at a Geo TV satellite van on a busy commercial street in Karachi, killing an engineer and injuring the driver.

No group has claimed responsibility for either attack.

"Criminals and gangsters have let loose a reign of terror against journalists but the government has miserably failed to protect us," Idrees Bhaktiar, President of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists said.

"The government issues customary statements sympathizing with the bereaved families and vowing to bring the killers to justice. But, practically, nothing is being done," he said.

Pakistan is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists with around 100 killed since 2000, many of them in Baluchistan where separatist rebels have complained about media coverage of the conflict.

Pakistan's police, last week, arrested the suspected killers of three journalists who were shot dead in the southwestern city of Quetta last year.