Masked gunmen abducted a reporter on Monday in the troubled region of Waziristan in Pakistan bordering Afghanistan where a top al-Qaeda commander was killed in a blast last week, the man's brother and a government official told Reuters.
ON THE EDGE: A Pakistan soldier stands guard near Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Kundi Gar post, some 80km southwest of Miranshah, the capital of Pakistan's semi-autonomous North Waziristan region, September 2005. US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley welcomed reports a top Al-Qaeda leader, Hamza Rabia, had been killed in Pakistan but said Washington was not in a position to confirm his death.(AFP/Pool/File/Anjum Naveed)Five masked gunmen stopped and took away the reporter, Hayatullah Khan, as he was driving near Mir Ali town, in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, family sources said.
Hayatullah Khan, a correspondent for Urdu daily Ausaf and photographer for European Pressphoto Agency, is also the nephew of Haji Mohammad Siddiq, the owner of the house in Waziristan which was believed to have been hit in a missile attack last Wednesday in which the al-Qaeda leader Abu Hamza Rabia was supposedly killed.
Hayatullah had left his home in Mondow to cover a demonstration by college students near the town of Mirali. His brother, Ihsanullah Khan, told Pakistani daily Dawn that a group of students had come to his house at about 9 am and asked him to cover a demonstration to be held at the Kajori checkpost. The demonstration had been organised to protest against Wednesday night's reported missile attack on a house in Asoray village, killing five people including a 17-year-old student.
Khan had contradicted the official report that Rabia died when munitions exploded inside a house. He quoted local tribesmen as saying the house was hit by a missile fired from an aircraft. US networks ABC and NBC had both reported that the blast appeared to have been caused by a US Hellfire missile fired from an unmanned, remote-controlled Predator aircraft.
On Sunday, tribesmen in Haisori showed US-marked fragments of missiles they said had hit the house. Khan had taken photographs of the fragments for his photo agency. Authorities said Rabia's comrades took away his body, which has not been found, but they knew of his death through intelligence reports and message intercepts.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said during a visit to Kuwait on Sunday Rabia's death was "500 per cent confirmed". Security forces launched an offensive to clear foreign militants from rugged border lands bordering Afghanistan early last year.
According to US intelligence officials, Hamza Rabia, an Egyptian, was a close associate of al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is wanted in connection with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Reports also suggest that Hamza Rabia had replaced Abu Faraj al Libbi, another al-Qaeda leader who was captured in Pakistani in May.
DRONING PROOF: People show wreckage of a missile they found in the house where authorities said five people were killed including a key associate of al-Qaida Hamza Rabia, Thursday in Hesory 25km east of Miranshah in Pakistani tribal along the Afghanistan border, December 4, 2005. Debris and a witness account backed reports that the explosion which killed al-Qaida's operational commander and his two bodyguards was caused by a US missile attack, possibly from an unmanned Predator aircraft. (AP Photo/Abdullah Noor)Family sources said Hayatullah had been receiving threats and anonymous letters for a few months, warning him not to cover the situation in the tribal area. They said he was neither involved in a tribal feud nor had any dispute with anybody in the area.
Two journalists have been killed and two others wounded in the South Waziristan Agency over the last few months. A number of newsmen have left the area due to the prevailing insecurity. Authorities have not been able to make a single arrest so far.
The tribal regions of North and South Waziristan have been sites of frequent military operations since 2004, which killed 174 alleged foreign militants of mostly Uzbek, Chechen and Arab origin. The abduciton of Khan took place three days after a wanted militant commander and his ten accomplices signed a peace deal with the local administration in North Waziristan. They pledged not to get involved in any terrorist activities or to harbour any foreign or local militants in future.
The Tribal Union of Journalists staged a demonstration in front of the Peshawar Press Club in protest against Hayatullah Khan's abduction and demanded his safe release.
