Taliban probe arrested Japanese journalist
PESHAWAR- The Japanese journalist arrested by the Taliban for; entering Afghanistan illegally is the seventh reporter to be nabbed since the start of the US aerial strikes on the seventh of this month.
Daigen Yanagida, a young Japanese journalist, was taken into custody by Taliban guards in Asadabad, capital of Kunar province.
Taliban officials in Jalalabad told that his suspicious movements alerted the Taliban and led to his arrest. “With his Small-beard and Uzbek features, Yanagida didn’t resemble the normal Japanese.
In fact, he looked like a Talib in his cap. It was only after he spoke in English that he was exposed,” explained a Taliban official handling the case.
The Japanese journalist was brought to Jalalabad from Kunar in the afternoon and lodged at the offices of the Taliban Intelligence.
A French journalist, Michel Peyrard, and two of his Pakistani colleagues, Irfan Qureshi and Mukarram Khan, are being held in the same place. The Pakistanis were accused of bringing Peyrard to Afghanistan illegally by making him wear woman’s clothes and burqa (veil). All three were charged with spying after a satellite telephone and other equipment was recovered from Peyrard. Taliban officials said investigations against Peyrard, Qureshi and Khan had been completed and their case would be sent to the Shariat court for trial in the next two to three days. Two other Pakistanis who assisted British journalist Yvonne Ridley to enter Afghanistan illegally through the Tirah valley in Khyber Agency are still being held in Kabul. Ms Ridley was released ten days after her arrest.
A Taliban official said Yanagida hasn’t been charged with spying yet. “We are suspicious about him but it is the job of the investigators to find out more about Yanagida.
Source: The News
Date:10/25/2001
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