Robert Fisk, (55), the veteran foreign correspondent and author, was assaulted at the weekend when his car broke down on the road near the Pakistani border city of Quetta. He suffered head, face and hand injuries after being attacked by up to 100 people.
"It was a very frightening experience and I am in a lot of pain but I am glad to be alive," he said. His car broke down close to a village housing refugees who had fled from Afghanistan.
He got out and about 50 people gathered. "At first they were reasonably friendly but then a little kid threw a stone at me. More stones followed and then I find myself being punched and beaten in the face. My glasses were smashed and my spare glasses were ripped away from me. I was covered in blood and couldn't see anything."
Fisk said he fought back at the mob, whose numbers had swelled to about 100. He was rescued by a Muslim religious leader. He later found out that the village housed Afghan refugees, whose relatives had been killed last week in the US bombing of Kandahar. "They had every reason to be angry. I've been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr John Walker, an American captured while fighting with the Taliban, is under 24-hour guard at a US military base in southern Afghanistan until Washington decides his fate, officers said yesterday. Walker (20), was wounded in a prison revolt in which hundreds of Taliban fighters died.