A British journalist held captive by extremists has been released, the British embassy confirmed Thursday. Journalist Asad Qureshi went missing in March while travelling to North Waziristan with a retired army officer who was killed by their captors.
"We can confirm Asad Qureshi has been released and our consular team are providing him with consular assistance," said George Sherriff, a spokesman for the British High Commission in Islamabad, giving no further details. The fate of the third captive, retired military officer Sultan Ameer Tarar, known as "Colonel Imam", could not be confirmed.
Qureshi, a documentary film producer of Pakistani origin, lived in Britain but spent the last few years in Pakistan - first working in the information ministry during the government of Pervez Musharraf. He later returned to documentary work and was believed to have been working on a film about the Taliban at the time of his capture.
A previously unknown group calling themselves Asian Tigers earlier claimed to have kidnapped the men and sent a video of one of their captives, former spy Khalid Khawaja, to the media, before apparently killing him. An email purportedly sent by the faction said they killed Khawaja because the government did not accept the conditions they had set for his release. Khawaja and reported associate of Osama bin Laden, was found dead in April with a note accusing him of spying for the United States, according to security officials.
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