Taliban demand release of
hostage By Danish Karokhel
(A review of Gabriele Torsello's book,
The Heart of Kashmir , can be found at A story in black and
white, Asia Times Online, Jan 26,
2004)
KABUL - An Italian freelance
photojournalist kidnapped in southern Afghanistan
by unidentified gunmen should be immediately
released, a Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday.
Gabriele Torsello was abducted with his
Afghan assistant on
October 12 between
Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, and
Kandahar. Five armed men stopped their taxi and
took them away, according to Ghulam Mohammad, a
fellow-passenger.
The kidnappers had
threatened to kill the photojournalist, who is now
a practicing Muslim, unless Italy returned Abdul
Rahman, an Afghan Christian convert who was given
asylum, and also withdrew its soldiers from the
country. This deadline has passed.
Qari
Yousaf Ahmadi, a so-called Taliban spokesman, told
Pajhwok Afghan News by phone from an undisclosed
location that the journalist was innocent and must
not be made to pay for the actions of the Italian
government. "The abductors who claimed they were
Taliban did so only to defame us," he said.
"Kidnappers of the Italian journalist are
robbers and they have abducted the journalist for
money. We will drag them to court if we find
them," he declared.
Torsello had visited
the Musa Qala and Sangin districts of restive
Helmand province. The Taliban, who have appealed
for his release, said that they provided the
photojournalist with security during his five-day
assignment in the two districts.
On
October 19, Pajhwok spoke to Torsello in captivity
on his cell phone. The journalist, who sounded
very frightened, said he was under constant
threat. He pleaded for help from the media to
arrange his release.
"The kidnappers tell
me that I am a spy and that British troops bombed
Musa Qala and Nawzad districts on intelligence I
have provided," he said in a shaky voice. He said
he was kept blindfolded and did not know his
whereabouts.
The London-based journalist
has been in and out of Afghanistan for the past
couple of years. Fourteen months ago he paid for
the surgery of a baby girl who was suffering from
neurofibromas, a rare pediatric disease. The
nine-month-old infant had an ugly tumor on the eye
that was operated on in Maiwand hospital in the
capital Kabul.
Janat Gul, little Shabana's
father, has demanded that the kidnappers release
the photojournalist. "Torsello is a sympathetic
Muslim and helps hapless people like me. The
abductors should assist him and should free him,"
he told Pajhwok in an interview.
A
resident of Bamiyan province, Gul has been living
with his family in the Khair Khana area of Kabul.
Employed as a daily wage worker, he said that he
would never have been able to afford his
daughter's treatment.
One day, Torsello
noticed a woman wearing a turquoise chador
(scarf) walking towards the bus station with a
baby in her arms. The baby, who had striking "dark
blonde hair and green luminous eyes", had an
abnormal and painful abscess on her face.
The journalist was so moved that he asked
the mother what was wrong with her child. But the
only thing she said was, "doctor, doctor". Because
he persisted she let him write down her name and
address.
Gul recalled that the journalist
visited their home, and offered to pay for
Shabana's treatment. Together they consulted
doctors before the baby was admitted for surgery.
The operation took four hours, and the child was
discharged from hospital after four days. "Shabana
cannot speak, but she recognizes Torsello's
pictures, and loves him very much," the grateful
father said.
According to Gul, Torsello
"offers prayers, keeps fasts and loves Afghans.
Today's news saddened me. Now I cannot feel the
joy of Eid-ul-Fitr," he said.
The
photojournalist was kidnapped during the Muslim
holy month of Ramadan. The 30 days of fasting
culminates in the festival of Eid, which was
celebrated in Afghanistan on Monday.
Torsello who has worked as a
photojournalist around the world for the past
decade, has stayed in Afghanistan for several
months at a stretch, wearing a black beard and
Afghan clothes. He is thought to have spent some
time traveling with the Taliban. The priest at
Shahdano mosque said he has twice seen him
offering prayers.
The journalist, who
travelled to southern Afghanistan to report on the
fighting that has erupted over the past few
months, was arrested along with some others by the
Taliban on charges of spying, but he was soon
released. Provincial police chief Nabi Jan
Mallakhel told Pajhwok that the journalist was
picked up as soon as he arrived in Helmand.
On September 4, Mullah Dadullah, a Taliban
military commander, had threatened to kill
journalists who published news put out by the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led
International Security Assistance Force in
Afghanistan. "We have an Islamic right to kill
such reporters," he had warned.
After
Torsello's abduction, Taliban spokesman Ahmadi
accused the government of "hiding the foreign
journalist" just to defame the Taliban. "When we
kidnap someone, we immediately inform the media,"
he said. "And if the person is proven guilty after
interrogation, our supreme council decides his
fate."
Two German journalists working for
international broadcaster Deutsche Welle were shot
dead by unidentified attackers in northern
Afghanistan on October 7. They were the first
foreign reporters to be killed since the Taliban
were ousted from power in late 2001.
