Militants massacre journalist's family in Pakistan, reporter goes into hiding

Foreign militants killed the brother, father, uncle, and cousin of Urdu-language Inkishaf reporter Din Mohammed at his home in South Waziristan in apparent retribution for his work, colleagues told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Three other family members were also abducted.

Pakistani tribesmen stand guard at a checkpoint in Wana, the main town of the South Wziristan region bordering Afghanistan, March 26, 2007. Al Qaeda-linked militants and Pakistani tribesmen fired rockets, mortar shells and automatic weapons on March 31, 2007 in a region where officials say up to 177 people have been killed since last week. The fighting showed the foreign militants, most of them Uzbeks from Central Asia, had alienated tribesmen who had earlier sheltered them in Pakistan's South Waziristan region after U.S. backed forces chased them out of Afghanistan in late 2001. Picture taken March 26, 2007. (Reuters/Alamgir Bitani)

“We are sickened by this massacre,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “We call on authorities to immediately investigate these brutal murders and to do all they can to locate our colleague Din Mohammed.”

The newspaper journalist’s 15-year-old brother Mohammed Islam, father Mohammed Amir, and a cousin were killed in a gunfight at the journalist’s house on Sunday, according to local and international news reports. The suspected foreign militants also abducted three family members, and publicly executed an uncle of the journalist. The fate of the other three is not known.

Three of the militants were also killed when the family members fired back.

Mohammed’s editor, Syed Fayyaz Hussain Bokhari, said on Sunday the militants might have abducted the reporter, but on Wednesday he said he knew Mohammed was safe. “It has been confirmed by his relatives, close friends and neighbours that he is safe and not among the abducted,” Bokhari, editor of the Inkishaf newspaper, told Reuters.

“He has not contacted me yet but that I can confirm, Din Mohammed is safe.”

Members of the local tribal militia keep position on a makeshift banker at a troubled area in the outskirt of Wana, the main town of Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region along Afghan border, Monday, March 26, 2007. Tribal militants praised by the government for a bloody assault on foreign fighters in northwestern Pakistan said on Monday that they will continue to go to Afghanistan and fight foreign forces there. Fierce clashes between armed tribesmen and foreign militants last week reportedly left up to 160 people dead, including about 130 Uzbek and Chechen fighters allegedly linked to al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Ishtiaq Mahsud)

Bokhari said he was sure the reporter and his family were attacked because of his work, especially his articles about the foreign militants, many of whom took refuge in the region after US-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.

Din Mohammed had accompanied a group of visiting journalists to the town of Wana on March 25 to meet with local tribal militant commanders. Few journalists from outside the area have dared to travel to Wana to report on a fresh conflict between local Waziri tribesmen and Uzbek militants with suspected links to al-Qaeda, said Peshawar-based journalists.

“We were advised not to go to Wana. It is the most dangerous place,” said Mushtaq Yusufzai, a reporter for the English-language daily The News and a cameraman for NBC News, who was in the group. “Muhammed assured us that we would be safe. But we were afraid that he would feel the consequences for doing his job.”

The group spoke to local commanders including Haji Nazeer, who is leading the drive against suspected foreign militants who took refuge in the tribal regions of Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan in 2001. Pakistani government officials have publicly stated their support for recent efforts by local tribesmen to oust foreign militants, but have said that Pakistani security forces are not involved in the fighting.