On September 2, 2005 Ezatullah Zawab was apprehended by local officials.[6]
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said:
"Zawab is a staff correspondent for the independent news service Pajhwok Afghan News and editor of the monthly Meena magazine."
CPJ said his apprehension was triggered by article he had published which were regarded as critical of local clerics and local officials.[6]
"We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Ezatullah Zawab. This is a blow to press freedom and sends the wrong message to other reporters in Afghanistan and to the international community."
Ezatullah Zawab was found beaten and unconscious in a ditch a week after his capture.[7][8]
He reported: "...that unidentified gunmen from Jalalabad picked him up and held him blindfolded in a basement. He was threatened and interrogated before being released."
^"Ezatullah Zawab, Pajhwok Afghan News and Meena: IMPRISONED". Committee to Protect Journalists. October 17, 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-06-14. Retrieved 2008-02-20. Local religious leaders demanded his arrest after he wrote an article in Meena accusing officials in the province's information, tourism and religious affairs departments of incompetence, according to Pajhwok and the Afghan Independent Journalist Association (AIJA). AIJA said in a statement that the religious leaders considered the article to be an "insult." Journalist unions and press freedom groups across the country held meetings to protest Zawab's arrest.
^"Afghanistan: Journalist freed after being held captive for six days". Noticias Info. September 8, 2005. Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2008-02-10. Zawab was found unconscious at about 1 a.m. near Samarkhel, in the interior of Nangarhar province. "I was kidnapped by six men in Jalalabad and taken away gagged and blindfolded in a pickup," the veteran journalist said. They kept asking him why he insulted the mujahideen and Muslim clerics in his articles, and questioned him about his political sympathies.
