Three journalists detained for suspected links to Taliban propaganda networks were freed in Afghanistan after angry reactions from media advocates and President Hamid Karzai’s call for their quick release.
Mohammad Nadir, a television cameraman for al-Jazeera, and Rahmatullah Naikzad, who worked for both al-Jazeera and The Associated Press, were released by NATO, the military alliance said on Friday.
“After reviewing the initial intelligence and information received during questioning, the two men were not considered a significant security threat and were released,” Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said. “During their brief detention, they were treated humanely and in accordance with international law and US policies.”
A third journalist, Hojatullah Mujadadi, a radio station manager in Kapisa province north of Kabul, who was held by Afghan intelligence officials also was freed, NATO said. The intelligence service would not say when he was released or disclose information about why Mujadadi was apprehended on Sept. 18, the same day as the Afghan parliamentary elections.
Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said he thought Karzai’s decision on Thursday, instructing the Ministry of Information and Culture to follow up on the detentions and work for the journalists’ freedom, could have sped their release.
He said he didn’t think NATO was doing itself any favors by detaining journalists in the middle of the night.
“All of these men were recognized as legitimate journalists,” Dietz said. “They never should have been detained in the first place.”
Dietz also said media coverage of the detentions might have been a factor in their quick release.
Al-Jazeera, which has extensive contacts within insurgent groups in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Nadir and Naikzad were both innocent.
Their contacts with the Taliban should not be viewed as a criminal offense, but rather a necessary part of their work as journalists.
The coalition said they suspected Naikzad of working with the Taliban to spread insurgent propaganda and film attacks tied to parliamentary elections held last weekend.
Naikzad, a Muslim, complained that he was not given proper time for prayer.
The interrogators asked him, “Who is your contact with the Taliban?” He said he told them “Everybody is talking with the Taliban. I’m not calling the Taliban. The Taliban are calling the media.”
“The American investigators told me, ‘If you are talking with the Taliban on the basis of doing a story, no problem, but the reports that have come to us is that you are giving information to the Taliban,’” Naikzad said.
He said that during his custody, he was sad and uncomfortable and kept recalling the early morning raid on his home.
“Now I’m very, very happy,” he said. “I can see my wife, my children, my mother, my family. I’m so, so glad. It is a gift God has given me.”
Separately, two NATO service members died on Friday following an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan. NATO did not disclose further details.
Also in the east, about 30 insurgents were killed during an operation involving a combined force of more than 250 Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, and coalition soldiers.
The force received small-arms fire in Alishing district of Laghman Province. No civilians were harmed during the operation, NATO said in a statement on Friday.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition