On March 4, 2007, Ajmal Naqshbandi, 26 and newlywed, was working as an Afghan “fixer.” He and his Italian employer, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a 52-year-old journalist who worked for the Left-leaning Italian newspaper La Repubblica, were kidnapped on their way to the war-torn Afghan province of Helmand. At the request of the Italian journalist, Naqshbandi —who was the sole breadwinner for his family—had agreed to arrange an interview with the Taliban, despite the risks involved. But the Taliban had other designs than giving an interview. They kidnapped the foreign journalist, the “fixer,” and their local driver, Sayed Agha, a 25-year-old and father of four, for ransom and a demand for the release of their jailed militants.

Agha was the first to die. “I can still see it now …” Mastrogiacomo said in an Al Jazeera report that later appeared in Italian newspapers (cited in Warner, 2007).

With this gruesome killing of the Afghan driver, the Taliban achieved their goal of attracting attention from the high corridors of power in Kabul and Italy.

The Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, already under pressure from his political opposition to strengthen support for the Italian military mission in Afghanistan, pressured President Karzai of Afghanistan to make a deal with the Taliban. In his detailed story, “The Italian Lived; the Afghan Died,” Gregory Warner (Warner, 2007) writes, “Karzai said he agreed to a swap for Mastrogiacomo out of gratitude for Italy's 1,800 troops and to prevent the Italian government from collapsing.” On March 19, 2007, five Taliban prisoners—including kidnapper Mullah Dadullah's brother—were released in exchange for the Italian journalist's freedom. A few days later, when Mastrogiacomo, who received a hero's welcome in media circles in Kabul and Italy, asked about Naqshbandi, he discovered that his “fixer” was still a Taliban prisoner. “You have forgotten the Afghan journalist,” Naqshbandi reminded the Afghan authorities during his phone call with Pakistani journalist, Rahimullah Yousafzai (Warner, 2007).