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Foreign militants massacred journalist's family in Waziristan
 Foreign militants killed the brother, father, uncle, and cousin of Din Muhammad, a reporter for Urdu language newspaper Inkishaf, at his home in South Waziristan in apparent retribution for his work, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) quoted his colleagues as saying on Tuesday. Three other family members were also abducted. It is not clear whether Din Muhammed was among them. 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 Muhammed. The newspaper journalists 15-year-old brother Muhammed Islam, father Muhammed Amir, and a cousin were killed in a gunfight at the journalists 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 returned fire, the New York-based CPJ said. Din Muhammad 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 an English-language daily and a cameraman for NBC News, who was in the group. Muhammad assured us that we would be safe. But we were afraid that he would feel the consequences for doing his job. The group spoke with 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. Posted by: Fred 2007-04-04 |
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