The DVDs have become popular among local journalists eager to provide the footage to international news media. Nasir Dawar, a tribal journalist who works for a local TV channel, said he was approached by a source in the region offering exclusive access to a DVD featuring the Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who had gone missing in early February in the Khyber tribal agency. Dawar said he didn’t want to pay the asking price for the DVD, but someone apparently did. The Arabic-language TV channel al-Arabiya broadcast the footage, showing the kidnapped ambassador surrounded by fighters, begging the government to help win his release. Azizuddin was freed last month.

“The price of an exclusive DVD and tape depends on the kind of footage,” said Deen Mohmmand, a local journalist in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. “Most of the global TV channels are interested in the footages of militant activities, showing some high-profile figures, slaughtering of kidnapped people.