UPDATE
September 23, 2006
Original alert: September 21, 2006
Saeed Sarbazi, Business Recorder
ABDUCTED
Sarbazi, missing since September 20, was released on September 23. Sarbazi told reporters that he was dragged from his car by unknown kidnappers who covered his face with his shirt. “I told them that I am a journalist but they told me that I am a terrorist,” he told colleagues at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club after he was released.
“I was interrogated about my personal and professional details, my family members, and my connection with the so-called Baloch Liberation Army,” he said. Sarbazi said he was kept awake, beaten, and tortured.
Sarbazi had written recently of disputes over access to political unrest in Balochistan. In 1998, Sarbazi was attacked and seriously injured for his reporting, apparently by drug dealers.