AFGHANISTAN

SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
Posted October 11, 2005

Mohammed Taqi Siraj Bamyan
Baseer Seerat, Kabul Film Production Company

ABDUCTED

Unknown assailants seized Mohammed Taqi Siraj, chief editor of the weekly Bamyan, when he was returning from Nuristan Province, where he had been working for the Kabul Film Production Company. The company was making a video about culture in Kunar and Nuristan provinces for the Women’s Affairs Ministry. The assailants also abducted cameraman Baseer Seerat, and ministry employee Shah Jan.

The Kabul Times reported that all three escaped while their kidnappers were sleeping on the night of September 21.

The three had been accompanying parliamentary candidate Hawa Alam Nuristani who was on a campaign tour for the September 18 election. Attackers shot and wounded Nuristani on September 14. She was taken to a Western forces’ hospital. The circumstances of the shooting and abductions were not clear.