Paul Overby

Paul Edwin Overby Jr. (born November 27, 1942) is an American author who disappeared mysteriously, on his way to Waziristan, in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani. Overby's wife, Jane Larson, on May 17, 2014. Journalists agreed not to publish his identity until January 2017, when she agreed to make his identity public.

Larson had believed Overy had been captured by the Taliban, or a group affiliated with the Taliban. However, on February 28, 2017, the Taliban issued a public statement that they had not captured Overby, and had no knowledge of what had happened to him. Their statement said they had already offered Overby's family multiple private assurances that they did not know what happened to Overby. The Taliban have acknowledged holding other Americans and other westerners.

Reporters Without Borders called for his release, on January 27, 2017.

In 1993 Overby had published a book on the struggle to free Afghanistan of its Soviet invaders -- Holy blood: an inside view of the Afghan War.