Kidnapped reporters
escape Taliban
NY Times' David Rohde and his interpreter hop a wall
By Diego Vasquez
Jun 22, 2009
It sounds like the sort of thing two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David Rohde would report on: A daring escape from a group of Taliban kidnappers in eastern Afghanistan.
But Rohde didn’t report on; rather, he lived it.
The 41-year-old New York Times investigative reporter, who was taken hostage along with his driver and another local reporter in November, climbed over a wall at the compound in Pakistan where he was being held, escaping along with Tahir Ludin, the other reporter.
News of his escape came as somewhat of a surprise, because his kidnapping had never been reported.
The Times and Rohde’s family had requested that the kidnapping be kept quiet as a safety precaution. Word had leaked online, but major news organizations heeded the Times’ request.
According to stories out today, the Taliban kidnappers had requested a ransom of up to $5 million for Rohde, who had been researching a book near Kabul.
Both the Times and Rohde’s family said no ransom was paid.
Rohde had been taken captive before, while reporting on a massacre in Bosnia 14 years ago, for which he eventually won a Pulitzer for the Christian Science Monitor.
Ludin had been working as Rohde’s interpreter. The latter had gone to Afghanistan for a three-month stretch just after 9/11, and returned late last year to work on his book, about America’s involvement in the country.
Rohde reportedly is in good health, though Ludin hurt his foot during their escape, which happened Friday.
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