By ANTARA News,
Hong Kong : Pakistani journalist Mushtaq Yusufzai, who reports out of the restive tribal belt haven of Al-Qaeda loyalists, has won the inaugural Kate Webb Award presented by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the agency announced Thursday.
Mushtaq Yusufzai, 32, who has been wounded by the Taliban and arrested by security forces in pursuit of his stories, won the prize for in-depth reports, analyses and blogs shedding light on the complex region.
He said he planned to use the award bursary of 5,000 euros (nearly 8,000 dollars) offered by the AFP Foundation for an international investigation into reports that radical Islamic groups in the West are sending converts to the tribal zones.
“I am aware of the movement of Western people into our tribal areas for onward operations in Afghanistan against foreign forces deployed there,” he told AFP.
“One of my biggest desires is to be able to trace who sends these people, who finances their trips from the West to our areas.”
AFP, in consultation with Kate Webb’s family, created the annual prize in memory of one of its finest foreign correspondents shortly after Webb’s death from cancer last May at the age of 64.
It is for a locally-engaged journalist, photographer or television reporter in the Asia-Pacific region who has produced exceptional work in dangerous or difficult circumstances, or who has demonstrated moral or physical courage in the course of their reporting.