ISLAMABAD, June 21: The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu notice of the murder of tribal area journalist Hayatullah Khan, whose body was found on Friday about seven months after he had been being kidnapped from the Mirali tehsil of the North Waziristan Agency.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry directed the NWFP chief secretary to submit comments by June 30 on the mysterious murder of the journalist. The comments would be placed before the chief justice in his chamber on July 1, 2006.

Journalists had requested the chief justice to take suo motu notice when they boycotted the National Assembly proceedings and staged a protest demonstration on Saturday.

On Monday, the government appointed a judicial commission to probe into the incident.