Just days before his kidnapping, the Pakistani authorities had said an al-Qaeda commander they named as Abu Hamza Rabia had been killed with four others in a blast at an alleged militant hideout in North Waziristan. The official version was that bomb-making materials had exploded by accident, but locals said the men were killed by a missile fired from an unmanned US drone. However, Khan took photographs of what appeared to be pieces of a US Hellfire missile at the scene. The pictures provoked angry protests in Pakistan at the infringement of Pakistani territory by US forces. While both the authorities and local militant groups denied any involvement in his killing, allegations persisted that Pakistan intelligence agencies were involved.