KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP)--Taliban militants released two Afghan journalists captured three days ago in restive southern Afghanistan, an official and one of the reporters said Sunday. The two were freed late Saturday with no conditions after negotiations by other regional journalists and tribal elders in Zabul province, where they had been snatched at gunpoint Wednesday while traveling on a main road. "They were both released and are safe and sound," Deputy Provincial Governor Gulab Shah Alikhail told AFP. The two are Dawa Khan Menapal, who works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Abdul Aziz Popal, who is a journalist at a local television station in the southern city of Kandahar. They were captured driving between Kabul and Kandahar when Taliban rebels blocked the road and were searching vehicles. The militants often conduct such searches, which look for people who work for the Afghan government and its international allies. "They took us to the mountains and we were there up to the moment we were released," Menapal told AFP. There have been several cases of Afghan and foreign journalists abducted in Afghanistan both by Taliban insurgents and criminal groups seeking ransom. A Canadian journalist, Mellissa Fung, was kidnapped last month in the capital Kabul and held for four weeks, saying afterward her abductors were a criminal family who made a living kidnapping foreigners and demanding ransoms. A Dutch journalist was held by suspected Taliban rebels for a week this month while a French aid worker kidnapped in Kabul Nov. 3 is still being held. Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=fFWui2UANxLvafhqnQjU%2Bg%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
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