Gunmen snatch reporter in Pakistan

Gunmen snatch reporter in Pakistan

Monday 05 December 2005, 16:26 Makka Time, 13:26 GMT


Armed men have kidnapped a Pakistani reporter from a troubled border region where Pakistan says a leading al-Qaida commander was killed in an explosion last week.


Armed men kidnapped Hayatullah Khan on Monday as he was driving near Mir Ali town, in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, his brother, Mohammad Ehsan, said.

Maqsood Hassan, the government administrator of the area, confirmed the kidnapping and said authorities were investigating.

There was no indication of why Khan had been kidnapped or whether his abduction was connected with his work as a reporter covering security issues in the region for various publications including the Nation, an English-language daily newspaper.

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Haji Mohammad Siddiq, the owner of the house where the blast happened, is an uncle of the kidnapped journalist.

Siddiq denied that there were any al-Qaida fighters in the house when, he said, it was hit by missiles.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1B4711D4-1ABC-4C09-9013-BC151D67F804.htm

Watchdog urges Pakistan to find missing reporter
06 Dec 2005 06:45:47 GMT
Source: Reuters

ISLAMABAD, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
has called on Pakistan to act swiftly to find a journalist kidnapped
after reporting on a government claim that an al Qaeda leader was
killed in a tribal region last week.

Unidentified gunmen abducted Hayatullah Khan in the North Waziristan
tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Monday after he photographed
fragments of a U.S.-marked missile that villagers say hit the house
where the al Qaeda leader was reported killed.