They played game after game of draughts with their Taleban captors until the men became drowsy, then made their big move.

With the gunmen asleep on the floor beside them, the two hostages crept to the window, dropped a length of old rope they had hidden during months of captivity, shimmied down and raced to freedom.

The extraordinary escape of a Pulitzer prize-winning American journalist and his Afghan translator from Islamic militants was described yesterday for the first time.

David Rohde, 41, a New York Times reporter, and Tahir Luddin, 34, an Afghan journalist who has worked for The Times for several years, fled after being held for seven months in a lawless region in northwest Pakistan described as “the most dangerous place on Earth” by US officials and a haven for al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

Mr Luddin told how they sneaked past sleeping guards at the Taleban prison near the town of Miram Shah after tiring out the men with repeated games of draughts. He described the attempt as a “suicide mission” that he felt was almost certainly doomed to fail. But after months in captivity the pair believed that they would be killed if they did make a bid for freedom.

At the time of his disappearance Mr Rohde was working on a book about US involvement in Afghanistan and had hired the services of two Afghan employees of this newspaper — Mr Luddin, 34, and Assadullah Mangal, 22, a driver — for a day’s work. They disappeared on November 10 last year an hour’s drive south of Kabul, en route to a prearranged interview with a Taleban commander.

Their captors proved to be the Haqqani network, a ruthless al-Qaeda-linked offshoot of the Taleban that is believed to have been involved in last year’s kidnap of Sean Langan, a Channel 4 reporter. The Times and other media organisations did not publicise the kidnap so as not to endanger the men’s lives further.

The two men spent weeks planning how they might escape after hiding a length of old rope from their captors. On Friday night they challenged the guards to repeated games of draughts before going to bed at midnight. An hour later with the guards asleep on the floor around them, the two lowered themselves out of a window. The rope was several metres short of the ground and the pair were forced to drop. Mr Luddin injured his foot and was and barely able to walk. The noise went unheard, covered by the clanking of an old air conditioning unit.

Once on the ground outside the jail the two men remained convinced that they would be caught by the 150 or more Taleban fighters posted in the area. However, Mr Luddin had scouted the area beyond their prison by persuading his guards that he had an interest in cricket, which was played on nearby waste ground.

They were also helped because a threatened Pakistani military assault on North Waziristan had drawn some fighters away from the area. After stumbling through the dark they reached a Pakistani border scout outpost. They were almost fatally mistaken for Taleban suicide bombers before being transferred to US custody. “All the way through we were both just praying to God for our survival,” said Mr Luddin, whose location is being kept secret for his own safety. The third group member, Mr Mangal, decided to remain behind.

During their seven months in captivity the three prisoners were frequently threatened with death, Mr Luddin said. They were also forced to appear in videos sent to Western news outlets and The New York Times which showed their increasing mental strain as they read lists of demands.

Mr Luddin said that the one positive aspect of his ordeal was the food, which was always excellent and accompanied by mineral water.

Negotiations for the release of all three men were conducted by the family of Mr Rohde in line with a policy of the US Government not to negotiate with terrorists. Those efforts were frustrated by the huge and varying demands of the kidnappers, who asked for £25 million and the release of prisoners in US and Afghan custody.

Mr Rohde had been married only a few weeks when he was kidnapped. In a statement released on Saturday his family said: “It is hard to describe the enormous relief we felt at hearing the news of David’s escape and knowing he is safe. Every day during these past seven months, we have hoped and prayed for this moment.”

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