Pakistan - Articles

Waziristan: Taliban, State and Media

On 16 June 2006, Hayatullah Khan's body was found with gun shots in Mir Ali region of North Waziristan. A dead body in Waziristan does not make for major news in the recent years, but what is significant in this case is that Hayatullah is the first journalist to be kidnapped, detained for more than six months and murdered in cold blood. He was working for the Nation and Ausaf, besides being the General Secretary of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ) and had been covering the war in Waziristan since the beginning. He was kidnapped in December 2005 by gunmen; his family and many others believe that he was detained security/intelligence agencies for his reporting on US military action in tribal agencies.

Hayatullah's last report was on the killing of Hamza Rabia, an al-Qaeda leader, close to al-Zawahiri, who died on 1 December 2005 in a village near Mir Ali. The initial reports mentioned local villagers witnessing an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) firing six missiles on Rabia's house killing him. His body was immediately removed, presumably by local Taliban supporters and buried secretly; the State however maintained that he was killed while making bombs.

American missile attacks and UAVs are not new in the FATA. Before his death, Rabia was earlier attacked in November 2005 in Mir Ali region, again reportedly by missiles fired from an UAV, in which his wife and children along with others were killed. Nek Mohammad, a local militant leader was killed by a missile fired from an UAV in 2004. In January 2006, Bajaur agency witnessed similar attacks, presumably against al-Zawahiri. Clearly, there is a pattern - the American technical intelligence had been pursuing all these individuals closely.

If Rabia's death in December 2005 was indeed caused by an UAV attack, it would have placed Pakistani security forces in a precarious position for working with the US forces and letting them conduct operations in Pakistani soil. The unfortunate Hayatullah found the evidence of US involvement when he traced a shrapnel of the missile fired at Rabia. The MSNBC published a photograph on 5 December 2005; the recovered pieces bore words such as AGM-114, guided missile and US. Hayatullah was kidnapped on the same day by unknown gun men.

Was Hayatullah detained illegally and killed for exposing or reporting on the US missile attacks in Pakistan territory? If true, then it is indeed unfortunate that State played a role in a brutal killing in a sensitive region. Even otherwise the military establishment has been pursuing a narrow policy vis-a-vis the media in the FATA. Ever since the beginning of War on Terrorism in the FATA, the State has imposed a ban on media coverage. In particular, the State seems extremely sensitive to reports of any unilateral or joint actions by the US. Those who defied the ban have been arrested and accused of compromising national security. Iqbal Khattak (The Daily Times) and Haroon Rashid (BBC-Urdu Service) were arrested in January 2006 in Bajaur; Rashid was arrested again in March 2006 in Waziristan along with Haji Mustafa (Reuters). Clearly, the State believes free media in the FATA is not in its interest.

The militants' approach towards the media has been even worse. While the murder of Daniel Pearl (Correspondent of the Wall Street Journal) attracted much attention and occupied the headlines, the Taliban/al-Qaeda ban on media in the FATA has gone unnoticed or under noticed. Much before the kidnapping of Hayatullah, two journalists working for the Frontier Post and Khyber TV - Amir Nawab Khan and Allah Noor Wazir were killed in Wana town by militants in February 2005. Some were lucky; Dilawar Khan Wazir, a Wana based journalist working with BBC World Service was warned with a bomb in his compound after he participated in a Voice of America show in December 2005. Militants have repeatedly issued threats against any adverse reports - both in the electronic and print media.

The Taliban in recent months has been attempting to impose its own code and run a parallel administration in Waziristan. More than 150 tribal elders have been killed by the Taliban and its supporters for either symapthising with the State or for not supporting the Taliban. Recently, during the sectarian violence in Khyber Agency, the media was once again warned by local radical groups led by Mufti Muni and Mangal Bagh. When journalists approached the political administration for security to cover the events in Bara sub region in Khyber Agency, the administration reportedly conveyed its inability to do so. Earlier Nasir Afridi, working for Khabrain was killed in December 2005, presumably in a cross fire between two warring groups in Darra Adam Khel. Clearly the media is under attack by the State, non-state actors and even stray bullets.

The State with no independent inputs, is pursuing its own strategy. Civil society is not well informed of the events at the ground level. A combination of these two could be a greater threat to Pakistan's security and that of the FATA. If Pakistan is sensitive about popular reaction to US presence in the FATA, either it should keep the Americans, their missiles and drones away or undertake a sincere military operation on its own to clear the militants. Gagging the media, thereby preventing civil society access to information on events in the region is not an option. It will neither make the establishment secure, nor the society stable.