Daily Times

“Twenty-one hours of ordeal has finally come to an end,” he said, adding that he, as well as a local producer and driver who were with him while they were filming general shots, was picked up on Thursday, a day after he had arrived in Kabul to cover the one-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover and “how Afghanistan is now”.

“We were intercepted, taken out of the car — dragged out of the car to be precise — our phones were taken away, and then we were assaulted — physically assaulted,” he said. “My crew was also assaulted and I was assaulted as well.”

Mallick continued: “After some while we were shifted from the place where we were intercepted to what we know was the GDI, or the Grand Directory of Intelligence, the GDI unit the Afghan Taliban.”

He said he and his colleagues were “questioned thoroughly” on their journalistic credentials and were also asked “personal questions”.

Around 9:30 p.m. (AFT) on Thursday, the journalist claimed he was moved to a room and informed he would be free to leave “upon the translator or the tarjuman (representative) arriving up.”

On Friday at 10:10am (AFT), he said that he was finally “dropped off,” or given permission to leave without restriction.

Mallick emphasised that he and his colleagues had all necessary press credentials and were accredited by Delhi for the assignment in Kabul.

My press credentials, though, “are still not with me. He told WION, “I still don’t have the letter of accreditation or the permit.

He added that the local producer and his driver were still being “tained by the Taliban.”

WION later tweeted that they had both been “released after incarceration for 42 hours.” The message included images of men’s exposed, battered backs.