Church leader tells of his ordeal in Taliban kidnapping: CEN 4.04.08 p 6.

Details of the kidnapping by the Taliban of the General Secretary of the Diocese of Peshawar have been released by the Church Mission Society (CMS).

Dr. Reginald Humayun Zaheeruddin, the medical superintendent of Pennell Memorial Hospital in Bannu and his driver were held for 26 days by Islamist militants along the Northwest Frontier after their car was stopped by the Taliban as they were was returning home from the town of Dera Ismail Khan on Dec 8.

At a village approximately 100km from Bannu, a vehicle cut across his path, and Dr. Zaheeruddin and his driver were bundled into the back of a car, blindfolded and covered with a sheet.

Threatened with death if they called out, the two men were taken blindfolded to an undisclosed site, chained in leg irons and locked in a dark cell. “The kidnappers unchained one foot of each man for a few minutes morning and evening to wash and relieve themselves, in the same room, causing an unbearable stench,” the CMS account said.

On the first Friday of his captivity a man entered the doctor’s cell and asked him to convert to Islam, but Dr. Zaheeruddin refused. The second week a Muslim priest came four or five times a day to preach and try to convert the captives.

His captives brought him out of his cell at one point, dressing him in a shalwar kameez and demanded that he convert to Islam. With video cameras rolling in anticipation of his profession of Islam, Dr. Zaheeruddin refused, protesting his faith in Jesus Christ. His captives responded that they would beat him and keep him locked up for life unless he relented. He refused and asked his captives what passage of the Koran permitted conversions by force.

Not having an answer to this question, the captives then demanded he write a ransom note to the hospital and diocese seeking £170,000 for his release. The doctor said there was no possibility such a sum could be raised but agreed to write the letter as dictated by his captives.

After he wrote the note, Dr. Zaheeruddin prayed the Lord would take his life rather than allow the hospital or the work of the church to be bankrupted by paying his ransom. “He also says that God gave him a repeated vision of a globe, which grew bigger with faces appearing on it, known and unknown, in thousands, praying for him,” the CMS reported.

Twenty six days after he was seized, his captives said they were releasing him. They took Dr. Zaheeruddin and his driver back to the car and allowed him to drive off—following the released prisoners “to the gates of the hospital” in Bannu.

Details of ransom payments or of the negotiations spearheaded by Bishop Mano Rumalsah of Peshawar to free Dr. Zaheeruddin are unknown. The doctor and his wife are presently touring Pakistan speaking to Christians about his ordeal, the CMS said.