Pak condemns journalist's slaying

Pakistan: A senior Pakistani Cabinet minister on Saturday condemned the slaying of a journalist who disappeared after reporting the killing of an al-Qaeda operative in a US strike in a conservative tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Hundreds of people attended Hayatullah Khan's funeral on Saturday, a day after his body was found near his hometown of Mir Ali. He was abducted from Mir Ali on December 5.

Khan went missing days after photographing shrapnel from a Hellfire missile allegedly fired by an American unmanned warplane to target wanted al-Qaeda figure Hamza Rabia in Mir Ali.

The widely published photograph contradicted a claim by Pakistan that Rabia had died while making bombs in his hide-out in Mir Ali, a town in North Waziristan where remnants of Taliban and al-Qaeda are believed to be hiding.

Journalists in Islamabad boycotted the coverage of the National Assembly's proceedings on Saturday and marched on a main road where the offices of the Prime Minister and President are located to condemn Khan's killing.

Chanting slogans 'Killer, killer, government killer' they demanded an impartial investigation into the incident. Opposition lawmakers joined the journalists at the rally.

The protest came hours after Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said in a statement that Khan's killing was a 'dastardly act' and promised to take stern action against those responsible for it.

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Sherpao met with the protesting journalists and assured them that no intelligence agency was behind the kidnapping or slaying of Khan, and claimed that they had tried hard to recover Khan alive.

"My brother sacrificed his life for exposing the truth. He was a bold journalist," Khan's brother Hasneen Ullah said.

Ullah said he was on his way to college with his brother when five armed men intercepted their vehicle and abducted Khan, although he said he didn't know who the kidnappers were or what their motive was.

He said his brother's body looked very weak and fragile, as if he had not been given enough to eat.

Khan, in his mid 30s, had been handcuffed and shot in the back, local officials said.

He worked for Pakistan's Urdu-language daily Ausaf and the European Pressphoto Agency.

In January, a Pakistani government official claimed Islamic militants may have abducted Khan, but local journalists and his friends said that he might have been taken into custody by intelligence agents.