page_title: Kidnapping of David Rohde
section_title: Escape
hierarchical_section_title: Kidnapping of David Rohde / Escape
caption_attribution_description: Jar afrido na sham, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
context_page_description: David Stephenson Rohde, a journalist for The New York Times, and two associates were kidnapped by members of the Taliban in November 2008. Rohde was in Afghanistan doing research for a book. After being held captive for eight months, in June 2009, Rohde and one of his associates escaped and made their way to safety.
  During his captivity, Rohde's colleagues at The New York Times appealed to other members of the news media not to publish any stories reporting on the abduction. Their intentions in doing so were to maximize Rohde's chances for survival and/or release.
context_section_description: At some point after their abduction, the men were transferred across the border to a Taliban compound near Miranshah in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. After seven months in captivity, Rohde and Ludin managed to escape during the night on June 19, 2009, an effort which Rohde later called in a byline for The Week as "last ditch" and "foolhardy", despite its success. According to Ludin, they snuck past Taliban guards after tiring out the men with repeated games of checkers. When the guards had fallen asleep, according to Rohde, they left separately under the guise of using the bathroom. The men escaped by climbing over the ten-foot wall of the compound where they were being held. Using a length of old rope Rohde had acquired two weeks prior they lowered themselves out of a window. The rope was several feet short of the ground, forcing the men to drop the last stage; Ludin injured his foot in the fall, though Rohde was unhurt. Mangal did not escape with the other two men. Rohde said that he and Ludin chose not to let Mangal in on the escape plans on fears that Mangal would tell the guards.  He and Ludin feared that Mangal was cooperating with the Taliban. As it turns out, Mangal was cooperating only to ensure his own safety. He escaped on July 27, 2009.
  The escapees made contact with a scout from the Pakistan Army, narrowly escaping being fatally mistaken for Taliban fighters, and were taken to a Frontier Corps post, from where they were flown to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Rohde was reported to have been flown to Dubai to be reunited with his family. According to Rohde's family, "no ransom money was paid and no Taliban or other prisoners were released." They issued a statement declaring that it was "hard to describe the enormous relief we felt at hearing the news of David and Tahir's escape and knowing he is safe. Every day, during these past seven months, we have hoped and prayed for this moment."
caption: North Waziristan (purple), on the Pakistani border, where the captives were transferred.
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