PESHAWAR, Oct 10: The Reporters Sans Frontieres, a Paris-based global organization working for the rights of journalists, has expressed concern over the arrest of three tribal journalists.

In a letter to NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah on Wednesday, RSF general secretary Robert Minard said: “While the two French reporters, who were arrested with them, were released, we do not understand why their Pakistani colleagues are still detained.”

Mohammad Iqbal Afridi, Syed Karim, Rifatullah Orakzai, Oliver Ravanello and Marcan Tetti were arrested on Oct 5. They were interrogated by the authorities of the Khyber Agency.

Their families feared that they could be taken to a police special branch where bad treatment with accused is common.

The two reporters from the French news channel, LCI, were released on Monday at the intervention of the French embassy.

The five journalists were accused of “illegally” entering the Tirah Valley in the Khyber Agency, a place off limits to foreign journalists.

The tribesmen had taken the journalists into custody and handed them over to the authorities.

KUJ: The Khyber Union of Journalists has demanded of the governor to intervene and order the release of the three journalists.

In a statement, KUJ president Sharif Mohmand and general secretary Shahid Hameed expressed anguish over the continuing detention of the journalists.

They said the three newsmen were Pakistanis and the government could not put a ban on their movement in their own country.