Asad Qureshi is a British filmmaker who was kidnapped on 26 March 2010 by a militant group called the " Asian Tigers" in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Federally Administered Tribal Areas , conventional_long_name = Federally Administered Tribal Areas , nation = Pakistan , subdivision = Autonomous territory , image_flag = Flag of FATA.svg , image_coat = File:Coat of arms ...

along the Afghanistan border, where he was making a film in

North Waziristan North Waziristan District ( ps, شمالي وزیرستان ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afgha ...

and interviewing

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...

leaders. Qureshi was accompanied by his driver, Rustam Khan, and two senior members of the

Inter-Services Intelligence The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI; ur, , bayn khadamatiy mukhabarati) is the premier intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant ...

, Khalid Khawaja and Colonel Imam during his trip. All four were abducted; Khawaja was killed and his body was found a month later in Mir Ali with an attached note accusing him of spying for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and being responsible for killing people during the

Siege of Lal Masjid The siege of Lal Masjid ( ur, , code-named Operation Sunrise) was a confrontation in July 2007 between Islamist students & fundamentalist militants and the Government of Pakistan, led by President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shauk ...

. Qureshi and his driver were released in September 2010 through family negotiations after 165 days of captivity. Colonel Imam was executed in January 2011. Qureshi's release was a rare occurrence as the Pakistani Taliban have been known to execute most of their victims. Qureshi has British Pakistani origins. He has a reputation as an experienced filmmaker, and prior to being detained, he had been based in Pakistan for over five years. It was not his first visit to Waziristan. In 2009 he made "The Battle of Swat Valley" for the BBC's ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

'', charting the army action taken in Swat against the Taliban. In April 2011 his film ''Defusing Human Bombs'' was screened in Pakistan; it shows the rehabilitation of children kidnapped by the Taliban and trained to be suicide bombers. He had started the film in September 2009 and the project was put on hold when he was kidnapped. He then continued the project after his release.

Usman Punjabi Usman may refer to: People *Usman (name), a name of Arabic origin. *Hadiza Bala Usman (born 1976), Nigerian activist and politician *Kamaru Usman, a mixed martial artist in the Ultimate Fighting Championship *Usman Janatin, an Indonesian marine exe ...

, who planned the kidnap, was killed two weeks before Qureshi's release and

Sabir Mehsud Sabir may refer to: People Peoples and language *Sabir people, 5th–7th century nomadic people who lived in the north of the Caucasus *Sabir language, or Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a pidgin language People with the name * Salimallah Sabir (born ...

, the leader of the Asian Tigers, was himself kidnapped by

Hakimullah Mehsud Hakimullah Mehsud (Pashto/ ur, حکیم اللہ محسود; − 1 November 2013), born Jamshed Mehsud () and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud (), was a Pakistani militant who was the second emir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. He was deputy to comm ...

. Sabir Mehsud was tortured and beaten and shot in the face so many times that he was beyond recognition.

References

External links

Asad Qureshi Official Website
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qureshi, Asad Living people British male journalists British filmmakers British expatriates in Pakistan English people of Pakistani descent People of the insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prisoners of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Year of birth missing (living people)