Journalist freed after two months in captivity in Tribal Areas

Reporters Without Borders hails journalist Rehmatullah Darpakhel’s release after two months as a hostage in North Waziristan, one of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Darpakhel, who works for the Urdu-language daily Ausaf and Aaj TV in the North Waziristan capital of Miranshah, was released safe and sound by his captors on 12 October. “We salute the courage shown by Darpakhel, who has survived a traumatic ordeal, and we are relieved by the outcome,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the federal authorities not to close this case. They have a duty to find his abductors and bring them to justice. The impunity prevailing in Pakistan encourages self-censorship and threatens the entire journalistic community.” Darpakhel, 45, was kidnapped shortly after leaving the Miranshah Press Club on 11 August. According to Nor Behram, a Miranshah resident who was with him at the time, he was walking though the town’s market when gunmen in two cars with tinted windows fired in the air and forced him to get into one of the cars. The climate for journalists in Pakistan continues to be extremely dangerous. Faisal Qureshi, a reporter for The London Post online newspaper, was murdered in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, on 7 October shortly after receiving death threats. Pakistan has been the world’s deadliest country for the media in 2011, with at least eight journalists killed in connection with their work since the start of the year.