BBC journalist goes missing

ISLAMBAD – A journalist who has been reporting from Pakistan’s troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan has gone missing on a visit to Islamabad, media reports said yesterday.

Police said they are searching for Dilawar Khan Wazir who works for the Urdu language service of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Dawn newspaper. Security officials told his two employers that a large scale investigation has been launched to trace the journalist who went missing on Monday afternoon, the daily said.Many reporters have vanished and been killed in Pakistan after covering topics sensitive to the government and pro-Taliban militants.Wazir escaped an attack on journalists in the restive South Waziristan tribal region in February 2005 in which two of his colleagues were killed, the daily Dawn said.In December of that year he moved from his hometown of Wana to the Dera Ismail Khan, in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, after his 14-year-old younger brother was kidnapped and murdered.Another brother, Zulfiqar Ali, studying in the Islamic University in Islamabad, said Wazir had left him on Monday afternoon saying he was returning home.Later, some unknown men approached Ali in his dormitory, claiming that Wazir had been in an accident and was at a city hospital.Ali, on the advice of friends, refused to accompany them to the hospital.The men loitered around the dormitory and after they left Ali called his brother’s mobile phone which was answered by a person posing as a doctor.Ali rushed to the hospital where he found neither his brother nor the doctor.Earlier this month the Supreme Court admonished the government for disregarding citizens’ rights after families of 41 missing people moved habeas corpus petitions.Sapa-dpaSecurity officials told his two employers that a large scale investigation has been launched to trace the journalist who went missing on Monday afternoon, the daily said.Many reporters have vanished and been killed in Pakistan after covering topics sensitive to the government and pro-Taliban militants.Wazir escaped an attack on journalists in the restive South Waziristan tribal region in February 2005 in which two of his colleagues were killed, the daily Dawn said.In December of that year he moved from his hometown of Wana to the Dera Ismail Khan, in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, after his 14-year-old younger brother was kidnapped and murdered.Another brother, Zulfiqar Ali, studying in the Islamic University in Islamabad, said Wazir had left him on Monday afternoon saying he was returning home.Later, some unknown men approached Ali in his dormitory, claiming that Wazir had been in an accident and was at a city hospital.Ali, on the advice of friends, refused to accompany them to the hospital.The men loitered around the dormitory and after they left Ali called his brother’s mobile phone which was answered by a person posing as a doctor.Ali rushed to the hospital where he found neither his brother nor the doctor.Earlier this month the Supreme Court admonished the government for disregarding citizens’ rights after families of 41 missing people moved habeas corpus petitions.Sapa-dpa