According to reports, the tribal journalist working for the BBC World Service and an English newspaper in South Waziristan was reported "mysteriously missing" since Monday afternoon after he left Islamabad for Dera Ismail Khan. His brother Zulfiqar Ali informed that his brother Dilawar Khan "went missing" after spending a night with him. He said that around 10 "suspicious men" visited the Islamic University where he is a student of the Law Faculty and asked him to go with them, but his friends advised him not to do so. Zulfiqar said that after the men left, he called Dilawar on his cell phone but a person identifying himself as Dr Jamshed told him that his brother had been injured in a road accident and was in a hospital. Zulfiqar said that he made the call on his brother's phone an hour after Zulfiqar left for Dera Ismail Khan. "Ejaz Mehr, an Islamabad-based BBC correspondent, rushed to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences but he could neither find Dilawar nor the person who identified himself as Dr Jamshed when Zulfiqar called on his brother's phone," a BBC journalist told Daily Times. A report for the missing journalist could not be registered in a police station as Zulfiqar is in a "state of shock". Dilawar and Zulfiqar's 15-year-old brother Taimur Khan was killed by unidentified men in Wana on August 30.
The BBC correspondent was later released by his kidnappers. Dilawar Khan said after his release he was kidnapped by some unidentified men near the police lines in H-11 Sector.
"I was waiting for a cab when a car stopped near me. Some men got out and shoved me into the car after blindfolding and beating me," he said, adding that he was taken to an unidentified location, and was asked questions about his profession. He said the kidnappers released him after warning him not to tell anybody about the incident.
