A man has spoken of his six-month ordeal after being held hostage by the Taliban, going eight weeks without seeing daylight.
Anthony Stephen Malone has recalled the "surreal" moment in December last year he was captured and taken captive nearly 5,000 miles away in Afghanistan.
The 50-year-old, a security consultant helping to extract vulnerable families to safety for a self-funded humanitarian mission, was grabbed off the streets of Kabul with a colleague.
He has told LincolnshireLive that the terror group kept him in an underground cell for half a year, despite having all the right documentation.
He was freed last month and the former British Army Paratrooper said he and a former BBC cameraman were locked up for 23 hours a day with little food.
Mr Malone said: "There was a 70-day period when I was put into solitary confinement. We were kept in basic conditions.
"The food was sparse. The treatment was harsh at times. We were locked up for 23 hours a day. In the underground cells there was no natural daylight.
"Sporadically we were allowed to have short walks in the corridor."
They were held for six months at Afghan intelligence headquarters in the capital before being freed on June 20 this year.
Mr Malone said he and his friend were detained as he was taking a photo of the former residence of the British ambassador, which he was hoping to rent as a place to sleep in.
He said: "I'd been in Afghanistan for three months at this point. It was surreal. There was no aggression. Some Taliban armed with AKs came up to us.
"We were with a senior member of the Taliban who was escorting us. It was other members of the Taliban from a different tribe who asked us what we were doing and asked to check our ID.
"We produced our official ID and letters issued by the Afghanistan Government to say we could be there.
"Myself and my colleague have over 65 years' experience on and off in Afghanistan. The problem came when they realised we were British.
"They asked us to accompany them to answer some questions and we voluntarily went with them.
"We were not arrested under duress or in handcuffs or anything. We got in their car and were then put in a holding cell.
"I thought it would take a couple of months to sort out but it was not until six months later that we were released."
Mr Malone said his accommodation was a cell measuring 3m by 3m.
He said: "I was with my colleague a lot of the time.
"The longest period of time without seeing any natural daylight was over two months."
Mr Malone, who spent his 50th birthday in January and captivity, and was granted permission to call his girlfriend and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office three weeks after his capture but that then took three months to set up.
Mr Malone said he believed quite early on that their detention was a mistake, given that they had entry stamps and friends in the Taliban.
He said: "It then turned out that four other Britons and one American were also arrested at the same time.
"They were facing a Taliban investigation and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Mr Malone added: "The Taliban leaders treated us as per their customs and culture of hospitality.
"My Stirling watch - made by a company run by a serving British soldier - was returned to me by the Taliban as a mark of respect between soldiers.
Any harsh treatment towards any of the Westerners held was by a rogue element within the Taliban."
Mr Malone was finally released and driven to the airport to board a flight home after he and his colleague talking with the FCO to help officials identify the right members of the Taliban to speak to.
He said: "Cool heads prevailed and we were released. I felt a sense of relief for my family and the other British nationals being held."
Mr Malone added: "I'm not pro-Taliban but I am pro-Afghanistan and I wish the Afghan people all the best for the future.
"The Taliban is in Government but there's a rogue element within the Taliban that are targeting former members of the previous Government and their families and people like translators for the British and Americans.
"We have helped remove over 400 families to safety. The Taliban is not a cohesive Government. It's been splintered into what can only be described as the old tribal system. They are the Government now.
"They are responsible for a country and its people. They are not an insurgency anymore.
"The Taliban needs to talk and get on better internally in order to get on better with the West."
