PESHAWAR, 23 February 2007 — A Pakistani journalist said yesterday that he and his friend escaped from unknown kidnappers after 50 days in captivity in a troubled tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
Sohail Qalandar, local editor of the Urdu language Daily Express, and his friend Niaz Mohammad were abducted from the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar on Jan. 2. They returned home on Wednesday.
It was unclear who their captors were, but both pro-Taleban militants and Pakistani authorities have been blamed for a recent series of killings and kidnappings of journalists.
“The kidnappers used to fire bullets near us to terrorize us and kept us tied up most of the time,” Qalandar told AFP by telephone, adding their abductors frequently injected them with tranquilizers.
“We were constantly tortured and harassed and our captors asked me repeatedly to be careful while reporting about kidnappings and smuggling in the tribal areas.” The pair escaped on Wednesday as their captors moved them on foot through a populated area.
“I told my friend this was the time we must act, so we raised the alarm and started shouting ‘help, help.’ Suddenly firing started, the abductors ran away and we ran into a nearby house,” Qalandar said. A local administration official said the kidnappers were trying to move the two men ahead of a raid by security forces. Qalandar thanked colleagues, officials and media rights organizations for campaigning for his freedom, state media said.
