Najibullah Quaraishi
Finalist : The Rory Peck Award for Hard News
Finalist: Sony International Impact Award

Afghan
"SAS in action in Afghanistan"
Shot: Mazar-i Sharif, Afghanistan,
         25-27 November 2001
Atlantic Celtic Films
for ITN/ Channel 4 News

Afghanistan. 25 November 2001. Qala-i-Jhangi fortress, Mazar-I-Sharif.

A fierce and unexpected battle broke out as armed Taliban prisoners rebelled in an intense firefight with their Northern Alliance captors. Western media crews retreated to the main building within an adjacent compound. On this, the first day of a three day battle, a lone Afghan freelancer, Najibullah Quaraishi remained on the ramparts overlooking the Taliban where Northern Alliance forces were fighting to contain the situation. At the height of the battle they were joined by men with distinctly English accents. For the next six hours, surrounded by gunfire, Najibullah remained at his post filming a sustained battle.

On the following day, as Najibullah joined a group of NA forces moving to enter the Taliban compound, they came under mortar attack. Of the fourteen men in his group, 11 were killed and three injured. Najibullah received shrapnel wounds to his head and remained in hospital for four days. His camera was destroyed but he had earlier changed cassettes, retaining the footage that later proved vital in telling the story of what actually happened at Qala-i-Jhangi.

The role of the SAS in Afghanistan has never been formally spelt out. Najibullah's footage showed for the first time the full extent of their active involvement in combat. As an Afghan freelancer with none of the financial, technical or diplomatic protection afforded to staff cameramen from a foreign country, Najibullah's courage won him the admiration of two separate panels of judges.

"Powerful stuff....it has true news value, courage and strength."
"Very in the spirit of Rory Peck - to keep filming whilst under fire,
and to put yourself in danger - everyone else was in the compound,
but he was up there, recording."
"The degree of guile and cunning by Najibullah is beyond belief...
He shows, in a way which we had not seen before, the viciousness
and intensity of close combat fighting in Northern Afghanistan."
"He is a local cameraman. They are anonymous people, very often
they have helped us, very often we have used their work with not
much acknowledgement. We need to pay tribute, encourage and
protect people like him."  Judges' Comments

Biography
Najibullah Quaraishi is a 28 year old freelance cameraman and stringer, based in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. An ethnic Hazari, he began working as a radio journalist for the local station, covering Northern Alliance forces as they attempted to halt the drive forward of Taliban forces in 1997/8. He was forced to flee to Pakistan when the Taliban captured Mazar, remaining there for almost two years. In 2000, his family came under threat and he returned to his hometown where his only option was to continue working under the Taliban regime. In the autumn of 2001, Najibullah quickly located the forces of General Dostum and General Atta and began covering frontline action.

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