Taliban demand of kidnappers to free Italian journalist
Akram Nurzai
LASHKARGAH, Oct 24
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Taliban Tuesday demanded of the kidnappers to release the Italian photojournalist Gabriele Torsello.
The Taliban said it was not fair to avenge Italy by killing the innocent journalist. Earlier, Janat Gul father of Shabana, demanded of the kidnappers to release the Italian photojournalist Gabriele Torsello. Torsello financed the treatment of Shabana, who was suffering from 'Neurofibroma' a tumor.
Five unidentified gunmen kidnapped Torsell from a car when he was on his way from Lashkargah to Kandahar on October 12. Torsello went from Lashkargah to Kabul on September 19. He also visited Musa Qala district of the southern Helmand province and took several pictures.
Ghulam Mohammad, a passenger traveling with Torsello from Lashkargah to Kandahar, said the photojournalist was abducted by unidentified armed men. He told this news agency five gunmen stopped their vehicle and kidnapped the Italian journalist.
The abductors has warned if the Afghan Christian convert Abdul Rahman was not handed over to an Islamic court for trial and unless Italian soldiers leave Afghanistan, they would kill the journalist by Monday midnight.
Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, the purported spokesman for Taliban, told Pajhwok Afghan News via telephone from undisclosed location they had already condemned abducting of the Italian journalist and excoriate it again. He demanded of the abductors to free the kidnapped journalist and Italy should not be avenged by killing an innocent journalist.
Ahmadi said they had tried time and again to get cellphone of the kidnapee to talk to him but all in vain. He said: "Kidnappers of the Italian journalist are robbers and they have abducted the journalist for handful money. We will drag the abductors to court if we found them." Ahmadi said they guarded the Italian journalist during his two-day stay in Musa Qala and three-day stay in Sangin districts.
He said the abductors wanted to defame Taliban with such act. When this news agency contacted Torsello some days back on his cellphone he was very frightened. In his talking to Pajhwok reporter, Torsello demanded of the media to help him in his release from the clutches of the abductors.