Five months of Pakistani journalist in Jalalabad prison - III
Faizullah Khan was detained by Afghan authorities in eastern Nangarhar province in April 2014.
Part - 3: (Intriguing account of a Pakistani journalist captured in Afghanistan for interview of Taliban leadership)
Read Part - 2 here: Five months of Pakistani journalist in Jalalabad prison - II
It was a carpeted room with sofas in one corner and a computer placed on a small table in the other.
“Please come and sit,” the officer said to us in a very polite manner. “Actually we had some misconception regarding you people but now they have been figured out. Now you people will be released and will surely be on your way to Pakistan.”
I felt a sense of relief growing in me as some heavy burden had been taken off my back. With a smile on my face, I thanked the officer. Both the Taliban workers looked at me triumphantly.
“Here are your things, your Rs 35000, identity card, press and channel card, laptop, microphone, camera and mobile phone. Everything is complete.”
Looking at all those things I said to him, “My passport size picture and institution’s card is not among them. But doesn’t matter.”
He nodded and put all those things in a bag placing it aside.
Due to the politeness and courteous manner of the officer it never occurred to me that somewhere hell is waiting for me.
The officer then again said to me, “Now the matter is that, given legal complexities, you have to go out of district headquarter handcuffed.”
I replied that the order will be happily obliged as I will be getting freedom later. His subordinates handcuffed us on the orders of the senior officer.
The same officer then brought a paper on which something was written in Persian and asked me to give my left thumb impression on it. It was not possible for me to read the statement on the paper because of the foreign language and didn t have the strength to ask them. However, they took my thumb impression while my hands were binded.
After getting the thumb-print, we were seated in a car. Great worries aroused in me due to the thumb-print as I could see the matter becoming legal.
Due to the politeness and courteous manner of the officer it never occurred to me that somewhere hell was waiting for me. It occurred to us when our faces were covered completely with black cloth.
A painful journey had begun.
My past glimpses and all those small incidents which had brought a change in my life somehow started coming to my mind.
Nothing was in the flow and going good for me.
It was the first time in 15 years that I was robbed of my mobile phone by four young armed boys despite the fact that our office was situated in Red Zone area.
The boys were hardly 13-14 years and the one who had asked for my phone was shivering and moving his head here and there rapidly. I handed my phone to him and went to my office.
Few days earlier, I had lost a family case in the court and then bought a cheap car quite expensively with the help of a friend but the car never functioned properly and was not even going on sale.
Nothing was in the flow and going good for me.
Social media was the focus of my interest and despite the fact that I had given many important news regarding Afghanistan and tribal areas, I used to believe that I was not achieving that particular thing that I deserved.
Read the Urdu version here: Five months in Jalalabad prison
