Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, like all committed journalists, was not averse to taking risks when it came to chasing a good story. In June 2002, he was declared persona non grata in Wana, South Waziristan Agency, where he and two other foreign journalists had slipped in without obtaining ‘official permission’ to cover the military operation against al-Qaeda. They were expelled from the area as soon as they were spotted by the agency authoritiesKhawar took the incident in his stride though, as he was not new to such rebuffs. Over the following year, he continued to cover Pakistan for such prestigious overseas publications as Le Monde, Le Express and the Chicago

Tribune besides working as a ‘fixer’ for foreign journalists. Apparently, the kind of access he provided to the international media inside Pakistan did not go down well with the establishment. In December 2003, he was hauled up by security agencies soon after returning from Quetta where he had concluded a successful assignment for Le Express. That he was able to take two French journalists – Joel-Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau – across the border into Afghan area where, according to their own account, they conducted interviews with some Taliban guerrillas speaks volumes about the state of Pakistani border security.

However, it was entering Karachi on their way back on December 14 that brought them trouble. According to Joel-Marc who published a logbook in Le Express after his release, they were detained by members of the coastguards for a routine search. Just then, the officer in charge spoke to someone on the telephone and ordered a full search of the journalists. It ended in the confiscation of the journalists’ cameras, notebooks and a laptop computer that belonged to Joel-Marc. They were released early next morning and left for Karachi immediately where they checked into the Avari Towers. In the evening, however, seven unidentified men barged into the Frenchmen’s rooms and led them out by force, according to Joel-Marc’s logbook. They were subsequently interrogated by the FIA and charged with violating the Foreigners Act. After a short trial in Karachi, both were sentenced to six months imprisonment and a hefty fine. On appeal, however, the jail sentence was suspended and the two men released on payment of an additional fine. But while the Frenchmen’s saga may have ended, that of Khawar Mehdi Rizvi has just begun.