Canadian journalist's fate at stake

Canadian govt refuses to negotiate with kidnappers of journalist

Published 16-03-2009

Mushtaq Yusufzai

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />PESHAWAR: The Canadian government has reportedly refused to either negotiate with Taliban militants or pay them any ransom for the release of female Canadian journalist Khadija Abdul Qahar.

Pleading anonymity, a senior government official told The News that the Canadian government said in a letter to the Pakistan government that it would neither negotiate nor pay any ransom to kidnappers of the lady journalist.

Rather, the Canadian government pledged to send own security personnel to assist Pakistani law-enforcement agencies in their efforts for recovery of the aged lady journalist and her two Pakistani helpers.

In the same letter, the Canadian government argued it was against their norms and principles to negotiate with militants or pay them ransom, said the official.

He said the Pakistan had explained it to the Canadian high commissioner in Islamabad that the area where the lady journalist and her two colleagues had been kept was remote and in control of militants.

The official said the government also informed them about risks to life of the Canadian lady. He said the government was worried about the Canadian lady after Taliban of Darra Adamkhel beheaded Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak on February 7.

The Taliban are still holding his body and demanding release of their prisoners in swap for the body.

Khadija, 55, it may be mentioned here, was kidnapped, reportedly by tribal militants, on November 12 last year.

She was on her way to Miramshah, North Waziristan, along with two other Pakistani nationals.

One of them, Salman Khan, was a student of chartered accountancy and she took him along for translation purposes, while the other one, identified as Zar Mohammad, is a personal assistant of the lady journalist. Both of them were also kidnapped and are still missing.

There are also reports that the militants have earlier offered to set free both the Pakistani nationals but refused to let the lady go. The Canadian journalist was trying to visit a house at Janikhel area of FR Bannu, where US drone had carried out first-ever missile attack in settled district of NWFP, killing several people, including an alleged low-level al-Qaeda operative.

The Canadian journalist and her Pakistan colleagues had reportedly rented a car from a taxi stand in Bannu to take them to Janikhel.

When they reached Sra Dargah area of FR Bannu, armed militants reportedly intercepted their car and dragged them out of the taxicab.

They were bundled into a double-cabin truck that driven them away towards North Waziristan.

The aged Canadian journalist had reportedly embraced Islam and was settled in Islamabad.

No militant group has so far publicly claimed responsibility for kidnapping her and two Pakistanis.

Government officials, however, suspect militants of North Waziristan behind their kidnapping.

In a videotape, which her kidnappers released in late February, the lady journalist was shown urging the two governments- Pakistan and Canada- to accept demands of her kidnappers so they could set her free.

In the videotape, which was also provided to The News, Khadija said she came to Pakistan first in early 2008 and then in July. She said in July she went to Bannu and met a man possessing old Islamic-era coins and wanted to sell. She got the coins and went back to London.

However, second time when she came back to Bannu, Taliban kidnapped her and shifted to their hideout.

“I wake up in the dark and I go to sleep in the dark. There is nothing for the wood furnace. I am very very sick. I am not sure exactly about my location. I am in some place in the border area of Afghanistan. So there are some air raids, this American area and this is the war zone. I have been held for almost three months and my embassy in Islamabad did nothing for me. I need the Canadian embassy to do something for me. I am their citizen. I have guns to my heads and I could be killed at any moment. And I need them to act quickly. I am extremely sick and I have pneumonia I need hospital,” the ailing lady explained in the videotape.

She said the Canadian and Pakistan government and other human rights organisations should contact Taliban before they take her life. The Taliban demand two million dollars for her release and she appealed to the Canadian embassy and human rights organisations to help in her release from militants’ custody.

She said her life was in danger and was endangering with the passage of time.

 

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