Taliban set free Canadian journalist's interpreter

PESHAWAR: His eyes glistened with a glimmer of hope when he was submitting examination fee Monday, just two days after his release from the captivity of the militants in North Waziristan where he languished for about eight months since he was kidnapped along with a Canadian lady.

Salman Khan, a student of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan, was the second person who was released by captors who had kidnapped him along with another countryman and a Canadian lady, Khadija Abdul Qahar, from Janikhel area of Frontier Region Bannu on November 11 last year when the three were on their visit to the area. Khadija had hired him as interpreter while the first person released by the captors was her guide, Zar Muhammad.

Narrating his ordeal to The News, Salman said he had lost all his hopes and had been waiting for his death in the captivity of the militants. “Though they (captors) had not tortured us physically, I was uncertain about my fate. With every passing day, I was losing hope. How come one live with mental peace in captivity and guarded by four or five armed men,” said Salman. “But it is true that at times you are hopeful of something although it seems unlikely and perhaps that’s the reason I am still alive here,” he added.

The young man said the militants shifted them to a new place every two weeks and he even did not remember the number of times their shifting from one place to the other was ordered. “Now I don’t remember how many places we changed. I was not sure about the locations we were being kept in. Whenever we asked about the location, we were told that it’s a place near the Pak-Afghan border.”

He said that he saw drones flying over the area many a time and often heard huge explosions and sounds of choppers hovering over the area. “For about five months, none of us knew about the things happening in and around the area and the country in general, but in the last three months we were provided a transistor that helped us a lot to know about the outer world. We spent eight months in small rooms all three together,” he sighed.

About the health of Khadija Abdul Qahar, he said that she was in very bad condition and had tested positive for jaundice. He added that she had also survived a heart attack during the captivity. “The woman was not even in her senses when I was leaving her on Saturday as the poor lady had been suffering from high fever for many weeks,” he said.

The youth said that once a militant tortured Khadija physically and burnt her hands and legs with a cigarette without the permission of militant leader. The militant who tortured her was later awarded lashes and the militant leader later apologised her and told her that after they were cleared and the government their demands, he would punish the militant in front of her, the 24-year-old Salman revealed.

But, Salman disclosed, Qahar had prepared her mind and was repeatedly saying that she would die in captivity in North Waziristan Agency. He said that he did not know much about the demands of the militants for the release of the Canadian journalist, as sometimes they were demanding release of some militants and sometimes ransom money.

The youth recalled that Khadija was always complaining about the indifference of the Canadian and Pakistani governments about her recovery. He quoted the old lady as having said that she would apologise her nation once she was freed as she was mistaken by believing that militants were innocent.

Asked how his release was made possible, Salman said that militants were holding him for he was the only person to communicate with the Canadian journalist. Once they got another man with English literacy, they released him.

Salman Khan, a resident of Garhi Kapura, Mardan, has an elder brother and three sisters. His father died sometime ago while his mother remained in trauma throughout the period of his captivity.