The Taliban has released freelance journalist, Faizullah Faizbakhsh, after nearly five months of detention. The group’s intelligence agents arrested Faizbkhash while filming the scene of the US drone strike which killed Al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, on 17 August 2022, in the Shirpoor neighbourhood of Kabul.
Welcoming his release, the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) confirmed on Wednesday that the journalist had been freed 3 days earlier after giving a written commitment to the Taliban, which usually contains a promise not engage in further journalist work.
Faizullah Faizbakhs was arrested along with American journalist and filmmaker, Ivor Shearer, who were filming for a documentary on the site of the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri, after a security officer informed the Taliban’s intelligence agents.
On 20 December 2022, the Taliban released Ivor Shearer and another American citizen in what the State Department spokesperson called a “good will gesture” by the Taliban.
