PESHAWAR: Faizullah Khan, a Karachi-based reporter of a private TV channel, arrived here on Monday after his release from a prison in Afghanistan.

He was handed over by the Afghan authorities to officials of Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad. They took him to Torkham border crossing where he was received by members of his family, journalists and administration officials of Khyber Agency.

Also read: Afghanistan releases detained Pakistani journalist

Faizullah Khan, who belongs to Mansehra district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and works as a reporter for ARY, was arrested in Lalpura in Afghanistan on April 25. He was convicted of having illegally entered the country by a Jalalabad court which sentenced him to four-year imprisonment.

A large number of journalists, led by Khyber Union of Journalists president Nisar Mehmood, Peshawar Press Club president Nasir Hussain and Fata Union of Journalists president Sher Khan Afridi, received him at the border crossing. Rana Azeem, president of his own faction of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, and Karachi Press Club general secretary Amir Lateef were also present.

Talking to journalists at the Peshawar Press Club, Faizullah Khan thanked human rights organisations, local and international journalists’ organisations and Pakistani diplomats in Afghanistan for raising voice against his imprisonment and working for his release.

“My counsel had told me that I would have to undergo imprisonment for another two months but a delegation of Peshawar-based journalists met outgoing Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Sept 26 and persuaded him to order my release,” he said.

He said several Pakistani nationals, including women, were languishing in Jalalabad jail. “They are facing cases pertaining to flaws in their travel documents but no one is there to seek their release.”

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014