Afghan journo Aziz Popal tells The Globe and Mail's Graeme Smith about his brief time in the hands of the Taliban, who captured him and another journalist as they attempted the dangerous drive from Kandahar to Kabul on the country's main highway.
Afghan professionals who travel that road sometimes strip themselves of anything that might link them with the foreign presence in the country, leaving behind their ID cards, hiding personal electronics, and clearing numbers from their cell phones. But the journalists didn't have time for such preparations, and climbed into a Toyota Corolla with all the accessories of their profession: notebook, camera, and mini-disc audio recorder.
Near a bridge in Zabul province, they were confronted by five men with big beards, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, heavy machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The insurgents took away their phones and confined them in a nearby village with two other travellers caught in the same roadblock. Local residents gave them shelter, dried meat, soup and blankets.
Only about a fifth of the houses in the village were occupied, he said. Villagers who remained appeared to be helping the insurgents, but they might have been assisting out of fear. Residents told him the Taliban had been regularly using the settlement as an informal prison, and had executed many people suspected of collaborating with the government. "That area is totally controlled by the Taliban," he said. "Some time ago the Taliban killed some people in the village, so people were afraid of them." He also suggested a different reason why the locals might be helping the insurgents: "They're very religious people and the Taliban are doing Islamic works."
Bandits and armed groups allied with the Taliban sometimes capture people on the same highway, but Mr. Popal said he felt sure his captors belonged to the central Taliban organization. They did not steal any money from him, he said, and they spoke politely. "We weren't tortured, nothing, not even harsh words," he said.
Still, the journalists felt anxious. The Taliban had celebrated their capture because they initially believed they had caught reporters who work for major news outlets, and they hoped for a ransom or a prisoner swap. They waited three days as their captors spoke by phone with their bosses in Pakistan, trying to determine their fate. The Taliban finally decided to set them free after establishing their identities as local journalists, he said.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed that they were released unconditionally. Their captors gave back all their possessions and they drove home safely, Mr. Popal said, adding that they might have suffered worse if the Taliban had connected them with international media.