Pakistan Jails Reporter Trying to Cross Border

Authorities in northwestern Pakistan have arrested a French reporter for trying to cross the border into Afghanistan, the scene of U.S. air raids against the ruling Taliban, a Pakistani newspaper reported Friday.

The English-language daily Dawn said Aziz Zemouri, who works for the French weekly Le Figaro magazine, had been detained Thursday at Ghulam Khan in the North Waziristan tribal agency.

Diplomatic sources said the French Embassy in the Pakistani capital here had been informed of the situation.

Dawn said that Zemouri, a French reporter of Algerian origin, was trying to enter Afghanistan illegally and had been handed to a “joint interrogation team.” It gave no further details.

Pakistan, citing security concerns, has placed lawless tribal agencies and other areas bordering Afghanistan mostly off limits to foreign reporters covering the U.S. raids on the Taliban and their guest Osama bin Laden.

The Taliban also has banned foreign media from their territory and say it will not issue visas.

Le Figaro officials said Zemouri last called his office late Tuesday, but they said the connection was very bad and it was unclear where he was.

Zemouri’s detention came days after Michel Peyrard, a reporter for French magazine Paris Match, was arrested by the Taliban after sneaking across the border dressed in a full-length burka. Peyrard was charged with spying after being found with a satellite telephone and other equipment.

French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that Peyrard was a journalist of international repute and that his detention was a blow to media freedom.

British reporter Yvonne Ridley, 43, was detained for 10 days by the Taliban after entering Afghanistan illegally. She was released Monday.