PESHAWAR: A jirga in Hurmuz tribe has set a 48-hour deadline for the safe recovery of Hayatullah Khan, a journalist, who was kidnapped on December 5 from Mir Ali in North Waziristan.
Ehsanullah Khan, brother of the kidnapped journalist, told Daily Times on Monday that the jirga, consisting of tribal clerics and chieftains, gave the deadline to the government. "If Hayatullah is not recovered within the next 48 hours we would launch a protest movement against the government," Ehsanullah quoted the jirga as saying. He said that after the deadline the Hurmuz tribe, would block highways in North Waziristan to protest the journalist’s disappearance. "The government would be responsible for any untoward incident," the jirga warned.
Ehsanullah said that North Waziristan Chief Administrator Zaheerul Islam told NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman that his administration had found two cameras and a gun that belonged to Hayatullah. The kidnappers had snatched a gun from the journalist’s brother.
Meanwhile, the Tribal Union of Journalists handed a memorandum to the United Nations in Islamabad seeking the world’s help in recovering Hayatullah Khan.
"Journalists working in Pakistan’s tribal areas face grave dangers and difficulties. Journalism in tribal areas remains paralysed and as a result journalists there are unable to work," the memorandum said.
"If the situation persists, there will be no journalist left in the tribal areas," the UN was told. "The United Nations should take immediate and effective measures to help the tribal journalists for the sake of promoting journalism and freedom of expression."
A tribal journalist in South Waziristan moved to another district in southern NWFP after two bomb attacks, one on his home and the other on a school his family ran.
