(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, the governor of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), RSF expressed its concern regarding the prolonged detention of three journalists from tribal areas. “While the two French reporters who were arrested with them were released, we do not understand why their Pakistani colleagues are still […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, the governor of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), RSF expressed its concern regarding the prolonged detention of three journalists from tribal areas. “While the two French reporters who were arrested with them were released, we do not understand why their Pakistani colleagues are still detained,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. RSF called for the immediate release of the three journalists, who merely exercised their right to inform the Pakistani and international public.
Since 5 October 2001, Muhammad Iqbal, Syed Karim and Rifatullah Orakzai, three journalists from tribal areas, have been detained in Peshawar. They were jailed and interrogated by the local authorities (Khyber Agency) and the Joint Investigation Team (linked with Army Intelligence), but their families fear that they could be taken to a Police Special Branch facility, where poor treatment of prisoners is common. The three journalists were arrested with Olivier Ravanello and Marcan Tetti, two reporters from the French news channel LCI, while they were near the Afghan border. The two French journalists were released on 8 October after the intervention of the French embassy in Pakistan.
The five journalists were interrogated by the authorities, who accused them of “illegally” entering Tirah Valley (Khyber Agency district), an area which is off limits to foreign journalists. New camps of Afghan refugees were installed in this barely accessible area. Tribal members who arrested the journalists and handed them over to the local authorities accused them of being “American spies.”
