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| India-Pakistan |
| Hundreds protest HayatullahÂ’s death |
| 2006-06-19 |
| KHAR: About 800 tribesmen protested the death of journalist Hayatullah Khan in Bajaur Agency on Sunday and demanded that the government provide safety to the media, agencies reported. Hayatullah’s body was found on Friday, handcuffed and shot in the back, near Mir Ali in North Waziristan. He had been abducted from the same area on December 5 last year. The protesters rallied in Khar, the main town in Bajaur Agency, chanting “Oppressors! Answer for (Hayatullah’s) blood”, and “Protect journalists in the tribal region”. They demanded that the administration track down Hayatullah’s killers, and called for an explanation from the government regarding allegations that Hayatullah had been kidnapped by intelligence agencies. No one has claimed responsibility for abducting or killing him, but his relatives claim that he was taken by intelligence agencies. In January, a Pakistani government official had said that Hayatullah might have been abducted by Islamic militants. Hayatullah worked for Pakistan’s Urdu-language daily Ausaf and the European Pressphoto Agency, and was abducted just days after photographing shrapnel from a Hellfire missile allegedly fired by an unmanned American warplane targeting Al Qaeda leader Hamza Rabia in Mir Ali. His widely published photograph contradicted a claim by the government that Rabia had died while making bombs in his hideout in Mir Ali. |
| Posted by:Fred |