Journalists in Pakistan's Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP) Wednesday warned they will launch a protest campaign if the government failed to produce a kidnapped tribal reporter within the next few days.

Five masked men abducted Hayatullah Khan, at gunpoint near Mir Ali town in North Waziristan tribal region Dec 5 while he was en route to cover a protest demonstration against an alleged rocket attack on a house that reportedly killed a top Al Qaeda man, Hamza Rabia.

So far no one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and after more than a week, authorities are still clueless about the journalist's whereabouts.

Khan was a staffer of an Urdu language newspaper and stringing for various foreign media organisations, including the European Pressphoto Agency. He is a nephew of Haji Mohammad Siddiq, the owner of the house where alleged militants were killed earlier this month.

His family accuses Pakistani intelligence agencies of whisking away the journalist, as he had been critical of the government's ongoing war on terror in the tribal areas.

The protest warning from the journalists was given after a media delegation met NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman, who controls the seven semi-autonomous tribal agencies, in the provincial capital, Peshawar.

Rehman assured the journalists that Khan would be recovered within the next two or three days.

"He (governor) gave us assurance, but we will launch our (protest) campaign if Khan is not recovered in the upcoming three days," Shamim Shahid, bureau chief of the daily Nation, told DPA.

Khan's family censored the local administration for their "indifference" towards the case.

"They (political administration) haven't done anything so far and have just been making concocted statements that they are trying hard for his safe recovery," Ihsanullah Khan, younger brother of the journalist, said.

"The political administrator is not even ready to meet us," said the brother.

The tribal regions of North and South Waziristan are the sites of frequent military operations and since 2004 more than 174 alleged foreign militants of mostly Uzbek, Chechen and Arab origin have been killed.