During 28 days in captivity, journalist Mellissa Fung was blindfolded and chained to a wall inside a tiny, darkened cave somewhere in Afghanistan's isolated mountains.
As part of her daily routine, the CBC reporter was handed packaged biscuits to eat and a juice box to quench her thirst.
She had no drinking water, no sunlight, and little sign of hope.
In a videotaped interview with Afghan officials released Sunday, Fung opened up about her harrowing experience, which began when she was kidnapped by gunmen on Oct. 12.
"They kept me blindfolded -- not the whole time," she says on the tape. "The first three weeks they had somebody with me the whole time watching me. So they didn't chain me. The last week they left me and they chained me."
During the interview, Fung also draws a picture of the cave for Afghanistan's intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh. She later thanks him for his efforts to secure her release.
"There's no need to," Saleh replies.
Fung, who was released on Saturday after a month of negotiations between CBC staff, Canadian and Afghan officials and her captors, is also seen on the video telling Canada's ambassador that she was unhurt.
Fung was freed near the town of Maydan Shah, which is about 50 kilometres southwest Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.
"They never hurt me," Fung says in the videotape. "I'm okay. Tell everybody not to worry. I don't want them to make a fuss."
"Could you stand in the cave?" Saleh asks.
"Barely and I am short," Fung answers. "It was maybe five-and-a-half feet long."
Despite her ordeal, images of Fung appear to show her in good health. She also jokes with the ambassador that she needs to take a shower because she's "not smelling great."
Taliban denies responsibility
Meanwhile, intelligence officials in Afghanistan said Sunday they have arrested three people involved in the kidnapping.
Details about the kidnappers have not been released, but yesterday officials said Fung's kidnappers were most likely criminals and not Taliban insurgents.
But Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman in the eastern part of the county, told The Canadian Press on Sunday that another Islamist group called Hizv-e-Islami is responsible.
"This is wrong (to say) that Canadian journalist Fung was with us," he said in a satellite telephone interview.
He added that Fung was under the control of Haji Zulmai, who is a low-level commander.
John Cruickshank, CBC's publisher, said that Fung's captors were aware she was in the area and took a chance at grabbing her while dodging police.
"She had been in a refugee camp. She'd been doing some reporting on conditions there and on difficulties in Kabul, and essentially, as she left the camp, within a couple of blocks of a police station, they pulled up in a van, jumped out, and overpowered her and took her," said Cruickshank.
Initially, officials arrested Fung's local fixer, who is named Shakur, along with his brother. However, Canadian officials are reportedly working to release them.
No ransom paid: officials
At a news conference Saturday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said no ransom had been paid for Fung -- a statement that Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon repeated to CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
"The prime minister made that perfectly clear yesterday when he had his news conference that no ransom was paid and it's not the policy of the Canadian government to do so," Cannon said.
"We're very pleased with the co-operation that we've received from the Afghan authorities in resolving this case. They worked extremely hard, our officials worked hard as well, and we're very pleased that all of this has come to a conclusion, a happy and positive conclusion."
However, a local media fixer in Afghanistan known as Jojo said Sunday that Fung's captors had threatened to kill her and demanded money in exchange for her release.
Jojo said such incidents give Afghanistan a "negative name" but that local and international reporters accept the threat of abduction as a part of their job.
"The national reporters in Canada are very happy for her release because we don't want such things to happen, particularly with international media reporters," Jojo said.
"Because they come from abroad to get something to show to the world and unfortunately something happened like that."
Fung's kidnapping kept secret
Fung's capture was kept secret by international media so as not to compromise the negotiations for her release. CBC publisher John Cruickshank said that the network had requested the media blackout so negotiators could work for her release without mounting public pressure.
Harper said the media blackout may have been crucial to Fung's survival.
On Sunday, Globe and Mail reporter Graeme Smith told Question Period that the timing of Fung's kidnapping was another reason why the blackout was important -- the Canadian election.
He said that if the Taliban had been responsible for Fung's kidnapping "it would have been very easy" for them to make a political statement by killing her.
On Monday, Smith will return to Afghanistan for his fifteenth visit to the country as a reporter. But because of what happened to Fung, he said it will be a very different reporting experience.
"When I go back this time, for the very first time I will not be allowed to travel independently on the ground in Kandahar," Smith said. "It's completely changed the way we do business."
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
