Pakistani reporter released unharmed after abduction

ISLAMABAD, Nov 21 (Reuters) A Pakistani journalist working for the British Broadcasting Corporation was released unharmed today, a day after he was abducted and questioned by a group of unidentified men, the reporter and the BBC said.

The journalist, Dilawar Khan Wazir, works for the BBC's Urdu-language service in tribal areas on the Afghan border, where security forces have been battling Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Wazir, who also reports for Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, said he was abducted from a taxi after visiting his brother in Islamabad yesterday.

''They blindfolded me, punched and kicked me. They kept asking questions,'' Wazir told Reuters.

The press is generally free in Pakistan but several reporters covering the conflict in the tribal areas have been abducted and some have been killed over recent years.

The circumstances of Wazir's disappearance led to fears he had been abducted and international media organisations urged Pakistan to investigate.

Wazir said he did not know the identity of the men who questioned him about his work.

''This evening, they put me in a car and later dropped me in a forest. I don't know who those people were,'' he said.

The BBC, which had also appealed to the government for help in tracing the reporter, said Wazir was shaken but unharmed when he turned up at the BBC office in Islamabad.

''He was held blindfold and questioned about his sources of information. He did not know who his kidnappers were,'' the BBC said on its Web site.

Last year, a prominent journalist in the border region, Hayatullah Khan, was abducted after reporting that an al Qaeda leader had been killed by a US missile.

His report contradicted the government which had said the militant had been killed when explosives stored at his hideout exploded.

In June, Khan's body was found dumped. He appeared to have been kept in captivity and killed shortly before he was found. Reporters' groups said it looked as if he had been held by security agents.

Wazir is from the South Waziristan region but moved to the nearby town of Dera Ismail Khan last year after security deteriorated in South Waziristan.

In August, Wazir's 15-year-old brother was abducted and later found near the family home in South Waziristan with head wounds. He later died.

REUTERS SP ND2304