PESHAWAR: Killers of Hayatullah remain unidentified
By Waseem Ahmad Shah
PESHAWAR, June 14: With the first death anniversary of journalist Hayatullah Khan Dawar falling on Friday, the federal government is yet to make public the findings of a judicial inquiry into his brutal killing.
Mr Hayatullah was among 10 journalists killed in Pakistan since January 2005. In almost all the cases, five of them having taken place in tribal areas, the killers could not be traced.
Following countrywide protests by the journalist community, the federal government ordered a judicial inquiry into the killing of Mr Hayatullah.
Peshawar High Court judge Justice Mohammad Raza Khan headed the investigation tribunal. The tribunal held proceedings in camera.
It completed the inquiry in August last year and submitted its report to the federal government. Justice Raza was quoted in the press last September as saying: “I have done my job by submitting the inquiry report to the federal government on August 18. Now it is up to the government to make it public or not.”
NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai announced in September that his inspection team had also completed its inquiry.
However, like the judicial inquiry report, the findings of the inspection team were not made public.
Mr Hayatullah was kidnapped on Dec 5, 2005 when he was going to cover a demonstration against the US and the Pakistani government over a missile attack on the tribal areas by unmanned predators and killings of civilians.
His body found after some time bore signs of a long and painful incarceration. There were handcuff marks and a bullet wound at the back of the head.
Family members and journalist unions said they believed that intelligence agencies were involved in Mr Hayatullah’s abduction and subsequent killing.
Mr Hayatullah’s family had claimed that shortly before his kidnapping, he had told them that he had been receiving threats from intelligence agencies for reporting events in the region.
Mr Hayatullah had investigated the case of Egyptian Al Qaeda militant Hamza Rabia killed on Dec 1, 2005.
The government had claimed that the man had been killed in Asorai village in a blast caused by an explosive in his house. However, pictures released by Mr Hayatullah showed that Hamza had been killed by Hellfire missiles launched probably from an American drone.
Ihsanullah Khan, brother of the slain journalist, said that the family did not believe that the Taliban was behind the abduction of Mr Hayatullah.
“Our family had received a letter from the Taliban saying they had nothing against our family. They said they did not kidnap Hayatullah and I believed them,” he said.
On May 10, the US consul in Peshawar, Mike Spangler, denied any involvement of his country in the disappearance of the journalist. The Pakistani government also expressed ignorance over his whereabouts.
Prior to Mr Hayatullah’s disappearance, two tribal journalists, Amir Nawab of the APTN and Allah Noor Wazir of the AVT Khyber networks, were killed on Feb 7, 2005, when a vehicle in which they were travelling was ambushed by some gunmen. Their killers too are yet to be apprehended and identified.
On December 5, 2005, President of the Dara Adam Press Club Nasir Afridi was killed in crossfire during a gunfight between the Bazikhel and Malakhel tribes.
Vice-President of the Tribal Union of Journalists Noor Hakim was killed on June 2, along with four other people when their vehicle hit an improvised device in Bajaur Agency.
