Slain journalist’s daughter demands justice | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Slain journalist’s daughter demands justice

* Judicial inquiry report still not made public

PESHAWAR: Seven-year-old Fareshta Hayat has said she would keep demanding of the government to make a judicial inquiry into the murder of her journalist father Hayatullah Khan, whose second death anniversary will be observed on Monday.

“I will repeat this demand until the government lets me know who killed my father and why,” Fareshta told Daily Times on the phone from Mir Ali in North Waziristan.

Hayatullah was found dead on June 16, 2006, after being kidnapped on December 5, 2005. He had reported that Al Qaeda suspect Abu Hamza Rabia had been killed in a US airstrike and not in an accidental explosion, as claimed by Islamabad. The federal government’s judicial inquiry under Peshawar High Court Justice Raza Khan had submitted a report on August 18, 2006.

“No concrete evidence was found against security agencies, army or political administration’s involvement in Hayatullah’s murder, but some evidence is available that makes these people or institutions suspicious,” Khan had written in his 30-page report made available to Daily Times in June last year. Khan had recommended the federal government to order another inquiry but no further probe was ordered.

Judicial findings: Islamabad had committed to make the judicial findings public, which it has not until now and international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders described Islamabad’s silence as “unacceptable”.

“We demand to know the truth about HayatullahÂ’s murder and we support his relatives and colleagues who continue to call for the facts of the case to be revealed and for justice to be dispensed,” the Paris-based organisation reacted to the government’s move to keep the report away from public eyes.
Source: Daily Times
Date:6/15/2008