Gunmen in North Waziristan released a journalist they had held hostage for two months, a local official and residents said on Thursday. Masked and carrying guns, the kidnappers abducted Rehmatullah Darpakhel on August 11, in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.
“Rehmatullah Darpakhel has been freed and has returned home. He was freed unconditionally,” Mohammad Amin, a government official in Miranshah, told AFP. His release was brokered by tribal elders and on Wednesday. Darpakhel was welcomed home by hundreds of tribesmen shooting into the air, a local tradition in times of celebration, residents said.
In August, the UN human rights commissioner urged Pakistan to investigate a spate of killings and kidnappings of journalists, including that of Darpakhel. According to press watchdog Reporters Without Borders, Pakistan has been the world’s deadliest country for the media in 2011 with at least eight journalists killed in connection with their work.
Faisal Qureshi, 28, a journalist working for a London-based online news site was murdered last week in Lahore. Reporter Saleem Shahzad was found dead on May 31 after disappearing in Islamabad. On Thursday, officials in Bajaur Agency said two youths from a group of more than 30 kidnapped by the Taliban in early September, had fled captivity in neighbouring Afghanistan to return home.
The group was kidnapped after straying across the border from Bajaur during celebrations marking the Muslim Eid holiday. “The two boys Abdullah and Amanullah, aged 18 and 16 years, returned home Wednesday night,” local administration official, Islam Zeb, told AFP. “We will try and extract more information from the boys as soon as they have had some rest,” he said, adding that they were physically fit with no signs of torture.