![]() Improvising as they went along, they were running a modest cottage thieving industry. But during her traumatic 28 days as their hostage, most of it spent literally in a small hole in the ground west of Kabul - and using a plastic bucket for a toilet - it became clear that her own abductors were mere freelancers. The potential return on investment was sensational, the kind of salary ordinary Afghans could only dream about.ĭemanding $100,000, Fung's kidnappers initially claimed an affiliation with the Taliban - a frightening thought, since the dreaded Islamists would just as soon kill as barter for freedom. Their business plan was dead simple: Seize a Westerner at gunpoint, then extort a hefty ransom for his or her release. It was October, 2008, and the Taliban and other enterprising Afghans had gone aggressively into the kidnapping game. ![]() Stabbed in the shoulder and the right hand, she was bundled into a car, blindfolded and driven away. CBC correspondent Mellissa Fung had just finished wrapping interviews in a United Nations refugee camp outside Kabul when the kidnappers attacked. ![]()
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