Watchdog urges Pakistan to find missing reporter

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 yesterday after he photographed fragments of a US-marked missile that villagers say hit the house where the al Qaeda leader was reported killed.

Pakistani authorities say that Abu Hamza Rabia, whom they called a senior leader of the al Qaeda militant network, and four others were killed when bomb-making material stored at their hideout was detonated accidentally.

President Pervez Musharraf said during a visit to Kuwait on Sunday that Rabia"s death was "500 percent confirmed".

The United States has not confirmed the death, however, and Haji Mohammad Siddiq, the owner of the house where the blast happened and an uncle of the kidnapped journalist, denied there were any militants in the house at the time.

Siddiq told Reuters on Sunday the house was hit by a missile which killed his 17-year-old son and an eight-year old nephew.

He has been told to appear this week before a court convened by government-appointed tribal agency officials.

Khan, who has covered security issues in the region for various publications including the Nation English language daily newspaper and several foreign news organisations, was the first reporter to photograph the missile fragments.

They were subsequently photographed by reporters for other Pakistani and foreign news organisations.

The New York-based CPJ called on authorities to act with the "utmost speed" to find Khan and noted that his reporting contradicted the official version of what caused Rabia"s death.

"It is imperative that local officials in this troubled and lawless region act swiftly to save the life of this brave journalist," CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said in a statement.

Pakistan, at the vanguard of the U.S.-led war on terrorism but sensitive to domestic public opinion that fears the West is making war on Muslims, has not specifically addressed the question of the U.S.-marked fragments or Siddiq"s story.

But authorities have denied in the past that US drone aircraft have carried out missile strikes against militant suspects on its soil.

Rabia"s body has not been found, and Pakistani authorities say his comrades took it away.

They say they have confirmed his death through intelligence reports and message intercepts.

US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said on Sunday he could not confirm Rabia"s death, but it would be "a very good development".

He declined to comment on any US role.

Khan was kidnapped in Mir Ali town.

yesterday, the government administrator there, Maqsood Hassan, confirmed his abduction and said authorities were investigating.

The CPJ said Khan had received numerous threats from security forces, alleged Taliban members and local tribesman because of his reporting.

Local journalists say that in 2002 he was detained for five days by US forces in Afghanistan after crossing the border to report for the US news organisation ABC News.

Early last year Pakistani security forces launched an offensive to clear militants from rugged lands bordering Afghanistan and conditions for local journalists have since deteriorated.

Unidentified gunmen killed two journalists in February in the South Waziristan region adjoining North Waziristan.