Gunmen in South Waziristan fatally shot Allah Noor, a journalist for Peshawar-based Khyber TV, and Amir Nowab, a freelance cameraman for Associated Press Television News and a reporter for the Frontier Post newspaper. The journalists were riding with colleagues in a bus transporting them from the town of Sararogha, where they had covered the surrender of a suspected tribal militant, Baitullah Mehsud.
A car overtook the bus about 7:30 p.m. near the town of Wana, and assailants opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles, according to The Associated Press, which quoted Mahmood Shah, chief of security for Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Two other journalists riding in the bus were injured. Anwar Shakir, a stringer for Agence France-Presse, was wounded in the back during the attack, according to news reports. Dilawar Khan, who was working for Al-Jazeera, suffered minor injuries. Nowab was also known professionally as Mir Nawab.
Days later, a group calling itself Sipah-e-Islam, or Soldiers of Islam, claimed responsibility for the killings in a letter faxed to newspapers. It accused some journalists of "working for Christians" and of "being used as tools in negative propaganda ... against the Muslim mujahideen."
Local journalists blamed officials for not doing more at the time of the murders. They said no attempt was made to stop the gunmen's vehicle even though the attack took place in an area under government control. They also said no real investigation into the murders took place.
The Pakistani military had begun an offensive against suspected Al-Qaeda fighters in South Waziristan in early 2004.