Danish Karokhel & Daud Khan

KABUL, Mar 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo has asked for immediate help as Taliban issued a two-day ultimatum to the the concerned quarters 

The 52-year-old Karachi-born journalist, in an audeotaped message received to Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday, pleaded for help. "Please do something as they have only two days" are the words repeatedly spoken by the kidnapped journalist, after being asked by his abductor to say it in a loud voice.

Speaking in Pashto language, the Taliban leader Mulla Dadullah asks the journalist to tell his government in a loud voice that they have only two days to save his life by starting negotiations with the militants.

"Tell them I'm alive. Today is 13th, and if they failed to accept the demands till 16th, it will create problems for me," says the Taliban commander in a Kandahari dialect.

Dadullah spokesman Shahabuddin Atal told Pajhwok Afghan News that the man talking to the abducted journalist was Dadullah. At the same time, Atal said the Italian government was endangering the life of its citizen by not coming forward for talks.

Taliban are demanding the withdrawal of Italian forces from Afghanistan. They say they will kill the journalist if the Italian government did not withdraw troops from the insurgency-wracked country.

The La Repubblica reporter was kidnapped along with his two Afghan interpreters in the lawless province of Helmand on March 4.

The United Nations, Afghan government, tribal elders in Helmand province and Afghan journalists, have already asked Taliban to release Daniele Mastrogiacomo as he was a journalist and has nothing to do with the military operations of any country. Taliban had accused him of spying for the British forces.

Ambeyi Ligabo, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, in a message released some three days back, had asked the Taliban to immediately release the Italian journalist and his two Afghan interpreters.

"I call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mastrogiacomo and his aides, as well as the release of all media professionals unlawfully detained around the world," Ambeyi Ligabo said in a statement.

Journalists in Helmand and Afghanistan's central capital Kabul have also demanded release of their Italian colleague. In Lashkargah, capital of Helmand province, local journalists called a meeting on Monday during which they condemned the kidnapping and asked for his release.

In Kabul, head of the South Asia Free Media Association - Afghanistan Mohammad Haleem Fedai and President of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) Rahimullah Samandar also called for the release of the Italian journalist.

On Saturday, the Italian ambassador to Kabul Ettore Francesco Sequi had told a news conference that the Daniele Mastrogiacomo was a journalist and had no link with any intelligence network.

Besides the journalist bodies, Tribal elders from the southern Helmand province, where the Italian reporter was kidnapped some 10 days back, had also asked the Taliban to release him.

Earlier, Taliban had demanded the withdrawal of Italian forces from Afghanistan and the release of their three spokesmen, namely Abdul Latif Hakimi, Ustad Yasir and Dr Hanif, who are in the custody of the Afghan government.

In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi had said that they were holding talks with the relevant quarters for the release of the journalist. However, he did not name the people with whom they engaged in the behind-the-scene parleys.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo is the second Italian journalist kidnapped by Taliban in Afghanistan. In October last year, Gabriele Torsello was kidnapped while traveling in Helmand province. He was set free after three weeks of captivity.

dk