This is more a human story than news of the dramatic escape of British Hostage Stephen Farrel from Taliban in Afghanistan. Stephen Farrel of New Yorker and his Afgan translator Sultan Munadi were captured on Saturday near a village by local Taliban. They had gone there to cover NATO air strikes that destroyed two petrol tankers, hijacked by Taliban killing 125 civilians.
Mr.sultan was an avid blogger for The New York Times and was studying in Germany for last nine months. He was back in Afghanistan for Ramadan and offered to work for the newspaper to support his wife and two children.
In the words of Farrel when the raid began all the Taliban ran away. Taking their chance to escape they ran too and finding their way through bullets and danger. The risk was always there but their fate was otherwise sealed too. Sultan had been told he would be beheaded like another translator only two months ago and the captive stuck together.
Sultan had promised to help Farrel escape somehow and their chance came when he shouted journalist, journalist as they rushed to a spot. What he was met with were bullets that brought him down. “He was lying in the same position as he fell. I saw him go down in front of me. He was so close-just two feet in front of me when he dropped.” says Mr.Farrel. That was the dividing line between life and death.
There was no time to think or feel and Farrel dived into a ditch where when he identified himself as British Hostage he was ordered out and flown away in a helicopter. Sultan was left behind where he had fallen. Villages came and took his body and one cannot blame the family who have asked the staff of the newspaper to stay away from the funeral.What kind of justice is this that all are fighting for, forgetting basic human decency.
