Pakistani TV Station Says Journalist Held (by US)

Wednesday June 21, 2006 7:01 PM

By AFZAL NADEEM

Associated Press Writer

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Authorities have held a Pakistani TV reporter for three months without charge for filming at an air base once used by the U.S.-led coalition in southern Sindh province, his employer said Wednesday.

Mukesh Rupeta, who has been missing since March 6, ``is being interrogated'' by authorities after using a video camera at Jacobabad air base, according to Geo TV, an independent channel.

The broadcaster said it had made ``repeated inquiries'' about Rupeta, and authorities have not launched an investigation or charged him.

Coalition forces started using part of a Pakistani air force base in Jacobabad as a logistics support base for operations into Afghanistan after a U.S. military campaign ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001.

Air force spokesman Commodore Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan declined to comment on Geo TV's statement and said there are no longer any coalition forces at the base.

Rauf Siddiqi, Sindh's home minister, said he had no information on Rupeta.

Last week, the handcuffed body of Hayatullah Khan, another journalist who had been missing for six months, was found in a tribal region.

Khan, who was kidnapped in North Waziristan tribal region Dec. 5, was found near the town of Mir Ali on Friday. He had been shot in the back.

No one has claimed responsibility but his relatives have accused Pakistan's spy agency of abducting him, a charge the government denies.

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