E Ilahi
Hayat Ullah Khan was a Pakistani journalist who was the first one to photograph the wreckage of a US missile that killed Pakistani civilians inside Pakistani territory. After reporting on this he disappeared in December 2005. He was shot dead and his body was found in June 2006 in the North Waziristan region. His wife had protested against his abduction and murder. She also died when a bomb blew up near her house.
Hayat Ullah Khan was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). The death of both parents has left behind five children aged 2 to 10. A fund to help the children has been set up by the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). Mohsin Abbas, a friend of Hayat Ullah Khan, makes sure the money from the fund goes to the children. A six-year-old Canadian girl recently donated money to the fund from her own pocket after she heard the story of the slain journalist in school, read more about it below.
To read more about the work of Hayat Ullah Khan visit Frontline: Inside Pakistan's Tribal Areas
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There is change in the air, and it is good
There seems to be a greater spirit of giving this year, led by children
online link :The Spec
December 18, 2007
Suzanne Bourret
The Hamilton Spectator
(Dec 18, 2007)
The children of slain Pakistani journalist Hayatullah Khan stand by the grave of their mother, killed in an explosion.(Abdullah Noor, the Associated Press)
The six-year old Grade 1 student at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Elementary school in Caledonia made a quick decision to empty her wallet to make a donation.
She'd just been told the story about the five children, aged two to 10, who were left as orphans last month near the Afghan border after their mother was killed when a bomb was thrown into their house.
Their father, a Pakistani journalist, Hayatullah Khan, was shot dead last spring for reporting that an al-Qaeda leader was killed by a U.S. missile.
Their uncle, the father's brother, was killed three months after their father was murdered.
Relatives believe the latest killing is part of a vendetta against the family. The children are now in a safe house, but every time their friend Mohsin Abbas, a Spectator reporter, calls, he hears the youngest crying. Mohsin is working on a film, called The Handcuffed, about the price for telling the truth in Pakistan.
The $10 the little girl saved from her allowance and birthday gift money will go to a fund set up by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) to help the family.
The money goes directly to the family, says Mohsin, who is heading up the project.
Donations can be made by calling Julie Payne at 416-515-9622, ext. 226.
Cheques should be made out to CJFE's Charitable Trust, the Hayat Ullah Khan fund. For information, go to cife.org.
For family and film updates, go to The Handcuffed.
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The Handcuffed
The widow of a Pakistani journalist who was shot dead last year for reporting that an al-Qaeda leader was killed by a U.S. missile herself was killed in a bomb blast near the Afghan border.
Mehr-un-Nisa the mother of five died when a bomb exploded outside her home in the town of Mir Ali, in the North Waziristan region.
A school teacher and the widow of Hayaullah Khan, Nisa had been active in protesting against his abduction and murder last June.
Her five children, ages 2 to 10, were sleeping in an adjoining bedroom. They were not injured in the blast.
Khan's brother says that those who killed his brother are behind his sister-in-law's death. In the past, he has accused Pakistani military intelligence of being involved in his brother's abduction, something the government has consistently denied. An investigation was carried out by the provincial government, but the authorities never found anyone responsible in his death.
Hayatullah Khan's bullet-riddled body was found in June 2006 after he was kidnapped six months earlier. Employed by the European Press Photo Agency (EPA) and by several Pakistani media, he had, just before his abduction, proved that an Al-Qaeda chief had been killed in the Tribal Areas by a U.S. missile.
Khan, who reported for various Pakistani publications, was the first journalist to photograph fragments found at the scene where the Al-Qaeda chief died that appeared to be from a U.S. missile.
Hayataullah Khan was awarded the Canadian Journalists for Free expressions World Press Freedom Award last year.
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