Dilawar Khan Found

It is with great happiness that I write that the BBC reporter who was abducted and missing in Pakistan has now been found alive and well, though somewhat shaken and bruised.

He made his way back to the BBC's Islamabad offices late yesterday after his gang of abductors/interrogators dropped him off in a wildnerness area outside the capital. Khan says he does not know who his kidnappers were but knows it was a large gang of people. They questioned his profession, his motivations and his actions as a journalist and most likely only released him because the BBC made an international stink of his capture.

As the Saccharinist has reported in the past, there are many media professionals who are targeted and attacked and sometimes killed for trying to bring the world awareness. Thank goodness Dilawar Khan survived yet again, though I fear this will not be his last brush with death, since it certainly wasn't his first.

Curiously, early reports by the BBC indicated that the Pakistani government refused to comment on whether Khan was in their custody so basically everyone in the world knows that the government was clearly behind the violent abduction of this journalist.

The question now is will Khan feel comfortable returning to his job after so obvious a threat against him and his work? It remains to be seen. What is very encouraging is that many of his colleagues have staged their own protests throughout Pakistan and the world, indicating that the Pakistani government cannot be allowed to impinge on peoples' rights without being condemned for it. Here's yet another stain on the reputation of a government that has little regard for democratic values or freedoms.