Torsello Kidnappers: Italy Get Out of Afghanistan
The gunmen who kidnapped Italian photojournalist Kash Gabriel Torsello, pictured on the left, are making another demand for his release. They said Italy should pull out its troops from Afghanistan. However, the Italian government is rejecting the demand.
Earlier, the kidnappers demanded the expatriation of Afghani national Abdul Rahman who has converted to Christianity and fled to Italy for asylum. Conversion to Christianity is punishable by death in Afghanistan.
Some local Afghan newsmen were able to interview Torsello in captivity. They said five armed men kidnapped Torsello last October 12 while traveling by bus from Lashkargah to Kandahar. “The kidnappers frequently tell me that I am a spy and that British troops bombed Musa Qala and Nawzad districts on my intelligence,” Torsello was quoted as saying by the local journalists.
They said Torsello did not know where he was kept because he was blindfolded. The Italian captive said he was under constant threat and extreme pressure from his abductors, according to the reporters.
The Italian is a London-based photographer had been covering war-ravaged Afghanistan for more than a month when he was abducted.
[Via: PDNonline.com]
[Photo courtesy of Dan Sumption & Zuma Press]
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