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US detains Pakistani reporter for unknown reason

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-14 09:17

WASHINGTON: US officials are holding for undisclosed reasons a Pakistani journalist who works for an US government media outlet.

Rahman Bunairee, a reporter with the Voice of America who has been targeted by Taliban militants, was detained Sunday at Washington Dulles International Airport by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency's spokeswoman, Kelly Nantel, said she could not say why Bunairee is being detained because of confidentiality laws.

A Voice of America spokeswoman did not immediately return calls for comment.

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Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan bombed Bunairee's home on July 8, according to a July 9 story on Voice of America's Web site. He was away from home during the attack, but he told the news outlet that no one in the home was injured.

Bob Dietz, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, met with Bunairee in Pakistan last month. Dietz said Bunairee was coming to the United States to take a one-year position with Voice of America. Dietz was told Bunairee had a valid US visa.

Dietz said he had no any information whether Bunairee sought political asylum when he got to the United States.

In late July, Bunairee told The Associated Press that the gunmen said they had been instructed by a "high command" to destroy the house because the reporter had spoken negatively of the Taliban over the radio.

As Pakistan tries to stave off a Taliban insurgency, journalists have been threatened, attacked and killed, and their relatives have faced harm. The pressure hobbles media that have flourished over the past decade and given Pakistanis a greater window into their government at a time when the world is watching.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said five journalists were killed in Pakistan last year, compared with 11 in Iraq. The New York-based group said two more journalists have been killed in Pakistan so far this year, including TV reporter Musa Khan Khel, who was shot while covering attempts to bring peace to northwestern Pakistan's Swat Valley.

Killings comprise only a small part of the threat against journalists. Reporters have been kidnapped by militants and detained by intelligence agencies and have watched their press club facilities come under fire, those in the field said.

The Washington Post reported Bunairee's detention on its Web site Thursday.