MIRAMSHAH, Nov 17: The widow of slain tribal journalist Hayatullah Khan Dawar was killed when a bomb exploded in her house in North Waziristan’s Hurmaz village on Saturday night, family sources said.

The woman was sleeping in the upper storey of the house along with her three children when the bomb exploded. She died on the spot while her children remained unhurt.

Mr Ihsanullah, a brother of Mr Hayatullah, said he had forgotten to lock the house’s main gate last night. He said the explosive device placed beneath the floor of the room where the widow was sleeping had been set off by remote-control.

He said his family had been receiving threats after the death of his brother and they had informed the federal ministry of information and the agency’s political administration about it.

Kidnapped in December 2005, Hayatullah Dawar’s body was found near his village in June 2006.

His disappearance and brutal murder still remain a mystery. A judicial inquiry had been conducted to know the reasons for his killing, but the findings have not been disclosed.

AFP adds: Hayatullah Khan was killed after probing the death of an Al Qaeda militant.

Mr Hayatullah, 35, who worked for a local daily and the European Pressphoto Agency, was kidnapped in December 2005, shortly after he challenged the army’s version of the death of Egyptian Al Qaeda commander Hamza Rabia.

The Pakistani army had said Rabia was killed with four other people in an accidental munitions explosion, but Mr Hayatullah took photographs of debris that was apparently from a US missile strike.

Pro-Taliban militants in the region had denied any role in Mr Hayatullah’s killing.