RSF ‘shocked’ at murder of slain journalist’s wife
PESHAWAR: Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, is shocked at the murder of the widow of Hayatullah Khan, a journalist slain last year.
She was killed in the early hours of Saturday by a bomb planted next to her bedroom outside her home in Mir Ali, North Waziristan.
Her five children, aged 2 to 10, were sleeping in an adjoining bedroom and escaped unhurt. A schoolteacher, Khan’s widow had been active in protesting against his murder about six months after his abduction.
“We call on the authorities in Islamabad and in the tribal areas to investigate this barbarous killing,” the RSF said in a press release. The RSF said that for the time being, it was not easy to know the motives for the killing, which had saddened the family for the second time.
“Hayatullah’s murderers, whom the authorities have failed tried to identify, may have felt the need to eliminate an irritating witness,” said the RSF.
The slain journalist’s brother, Ehsanullah Khan, confirmed his sister-in-law’s death to the RSF.
“She was sleeping on the floor in her bedroom while her five children were in another bedroom. The bomb exploded at the foot of the wall of her bedroom,” said Ehsan.
He accused those who killed his brother of being behind his sister-in-law’s death. In the past, Ehsan had accused the Pakistani military intelligence of being involved in his brother’s abduction, something the government has always denied. But the authorities never published the findings of a Peshawar judge’s investigation. Ehsan said his sister-in-law had received threats, which he had reported to former Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani. But the authorities never took any measures to protect her.
Hayatullah’s bullet-riddled body was found six months after he was kidnapped in December 2005. Employed by the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) and several Pakistani media organisations, he had, shortly before his abduction, proved that an Al-Qaeda leader had been killed in the tribal areas by a US missile, said the RSF statement.
Source: Daily Times
Date:11/19/2007
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