Paul Edwin Overby Jr. (born November 27, 1942) is an American author who disappeared on his way to
Waziristan
Waziristan (Persian language, Persian, Pashto, Ormuri, , ) is a mountainous region of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Waziristan region administratively splits among three districts: North Waziristan, Lower South Waziristan Dis ...
, in
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
's
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...
, to interview
Sirajuddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin Haqqani (, ; aliases '' Khalifa'' and Siraj Haqqani; born December 1979) is an Afghan leader who is the first deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acting interior minister in the post-2021 Taliban regime. He has been a deputy lead ...
.
[ Overby's wife, Jane Larson, revealed it happened on May 17, 2014. Journalists agreed not to publish his identity until January 2017, when she agreed to make his identity public.][
]
Disappearance
Larson had believed Overby had been kidnapped by the Taliban
, leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders
, leader1_name = {{indented plainlist,
* Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013)
* Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016)
* Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...
.[ However, on February 28, 2017, the Taliban released a statement denying that they had kidnapped Overby.][
]Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
called for his release, on January 27, 2017.[ On March 19, 2019, journalist ]David Rohde
David Stephenson Rohde (born August 7, 1967) is an American author and investigative journalist. He is the former online news director for ''The New Yorker'' and now the senior executive editor on national security for NBC News. While a repor ...
, a former hostage himself, noted in ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', that Overby was one of the Americans still in captivity.[
]
Later events
On May 8, 2018, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his rescue.[ In addition, the US government's counterterrorism ]Rewards for Justice Program
Rewards for Justice Program (RFJ) is United States Department of State's national security interagency program that offers reward for information leading to the location or an arrest of leaders of terrorist groups, financiers of terrorism, inclu ...
offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his location.
Publications
In 1993, Overby published a book on the Soviet–Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic o ...
, ''Holy Blood: An Inside View of the Afghan War''.[
]
See also
*List of kidnappings
The following is a list of kidnappings summarizing the events of each case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.
By date
* List of kidnappings befo ...
*List of people who disappeared
{{Short description, Lists of people of unknown locations and statusLists of people who disappeared include those whose current whereabouts are unknown, or whose deaths are unsubstantiated:
Many people who disappear are eventually declared dead ' ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Overby, Paul
1942 births
2010s missing person cases
American male writers
Kidnapped American people
Missing American people
Missing person cases in Pakistan