Caitlan Coleman breaks silence on captivity, says 'was in Pakistan for more than a year'

[Indika]

Caitlan Coleman breaks silence on captivity, says 'was in Pakistan for more than a year'
Dawn.comUpdated October 24, 2017
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Disputing claims about her rescue, the recently recovered Caitlan Coleman has said that she was in Pakistan for at least a year before she was "rescued" by Pakistan Army in an operation near the Pak-Afghan border earlier this month.

While speaking to the Toronto Star in her first interview since her recovery, Coleman said: "Right now, everybody’s shunting blame and making claims. Pakistan says no, they were never in Pakistan until the end. The US says, no they were always in Pakistan; it was Pakistan’s responsibility. But neither of those are true."

She also said that she is certain that they were held in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. "We were not crossing into Pakistan that day. We had been in Pakistan for more than a year at that point."

Coleman, an American national, revealed in the interview — published on Monday — that the couple were moved to Pakistan immediately after being kidnapped in Afghanistan.

"They first took us out of Afghanistan; it was several days’ drive," said Coleman, who still wears a hijab after being released. She refused to comment on whether the couple have converted to Islam.

She said that her kidnappers took them to Miramshah in North Waziristan where they were kept for almost a year, adding that they knew where they were because her husband, Joshua Boyle, could understand some Farsi.

Read: Caitlan and Joshua: adventurers caught in Taliban trap

"It was very bad. My husband and I were separated at that time. He wasn’t allowed to see Najaeshi or spend any time with us."

Najaeshi Jonah is their oldest son.

"Then we were moved to the north of Miramshah, to the house of a man who said he was called Mahmoud. He was very nice to Najaeshi and would provide us with amenities [that] we wouldn’t have otherwise," she told the Toronto Star. "He would take Najaeshi out to get him sunlight and nobody else did that at any other point."

She does not exactly remember the events around her rescue but does recall a gun battle while she was in the trunk of a car.

"Our first fear — why we were not poking our heads up and yelling for help — was that it was another gang trying to kidnap us. Possibly just part of the Haqqani network fighting with another part. They’re all just bandits," she said about her rescue.

"You’re a prisoner for so long, you’re so suspicious. I was still thinking we don’t know these people, we don’t know where they’re taking us."

Of her reaction on realising it was the Pakistani forces and not another group of captors, she said: "I think I was mostly just in shock."

While revealing details of the rescue, Pakistan Army had said that the family had been moved from Afghanistan into Pakistan the day the operation took place, not earlier.

'Captors killed child because Joshua refused to join them'
Backing her husband's earlier claims of Coleman being raped in captivity and the forced abortion of their child, she said that the assault on her happened because they wanted the couple to stop contacting people who were not their guards or captors.

The Taliban had refuted the claims, saying that the child had died naturally and that the woman had not been raped in captivity.

They named their unborn child "Martyr", she said, who was killed because the captors were angry at Boyle for not joining them.

Explore: Everything you need to know about the kidnapping and recovery of Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle

They killed the child using using high amounts of estrogen in their food and boasted of what they had done, she told the daily.

Her next two pregnancies were kept secret and the babies were delivered by Boyle using a flashlight.

"We had a pen they didn’t know about and we were taking little scraps of paper and trying to hand out notes to anyone and everyone that wasn’t one of the guards or commanders involved in killing Martyr," she said regarding the alleged assault against her.

"But then they took us, separated us, and beat us and that was when the assault on me happened because they wanted us to stop."

Naming houses in Afghanistan, Pakistan
The couple and their children were frequently moved between Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to Coleman. They were usually drugged and kept in the trunk whenever they were moved, she said.

From their house north of Miramshah, they were then taken to Spin Ghar in Afghanistan. Coleman also shared lighter moments they had in captivity, including naming the places they were kept in.

They called one "Cat Hotel" because it looked like a hotel to them. She claimed they could see the Pak-Afghan border from there. The kidnappers acquired a Pakistani-styled "jingle truck" from there, told Coleman, and moved them to an area between Kohat and Bannu.

Their last "home" was named "Dar Al Musa", she said.

"Outside everyday they were doing some training or something was going on, and some guy was shouting and we laughed because whoever Musa was, he was not doing a good job," she said.

"He was always yelling, 'No, no, no, Musa Musa.'"

They were there since November 2016, she said, and were then transferred to the "Mud House" just two days before their recovery.

Decision to have children in captivity
Speaking on the couple's decision to have two children in captivity, she said that, among other things, she wanted a large family and they did not know when they would be released.

"It was a decision we made. We did think about it [...] it’s difficult to explain all the reasons, but, for me, a large part was the fact that it has always been important to me to have a large family," she said.

"This took our life away from us — this captivity with no end in sight. And so I felt that it was our best choice at that time. We didn’t know if we would have that opportunity when we came back. We didn’t know how long it would be. It was already unprecedented, so we couldn’t say, 'Oh, we’ll only be here a year or six months.'"


https://www.dawn.com/news/1365936/c...ity-says-was-in-pakistan-for-more-than-a-year

 

[Indika]

In first sit-down interview, Caitlan Coleman tells of forced abortion, disputes official account of her rescue in Pakistan

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/...ficial-account-of-her-rescue-in-pakistan.html

“We were not crossing into Pakistan that day,” Coleman said on the grounds of an Ottawa hospital on Monday, and claims made by Islamabad and Washington that they were rescued Oct. 11 after crossing the border are false.

Former hostage Caitlan Coleman, 31, with her months-old daughter, spoke to the Star on Monday to dispute statements made about her family's captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Michelle Shephard / Toronto Star) | Michelle ShephardNational Security Reporter
Mon., Oct. 23, 2017

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OTTAWA—Caitlan Coleman, the 31-year-old American woman who gave birth to her three children while held hostage by the Haqqani network, says she is breaking her silence to dispute statements made about her family’s captivity and the day they were rescued.

“Right now everybody’s shunting blame and making claims. Pakistan says, no they were never in Pakistan, until the end. The U.S. says, no they were always in Pakistan; it was Pakistan’s responsibility. But neither of those are true,” she told the Star.

During her first interview Monday since being rescued 12 days ago, Coleman added crucial details about the kidnapping case that has captured international attention and led to widespread speculation.

While she said she is not ready to speak publicly about all aspects of her captivity, she is certain they were held in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and claims made by Islamabad and Washington, that they were rescued Oct. 11 after crossing the border are false. “We were not crossing into Pakistan that day. We had been in Pakistan for more than a year at that point.”

• 
  In first sit-down interview, Caitlan Coleman tells of forced abortion, disputes official account of her rescue in Pakistan

Coleman was kidnapped with her husband, Joshua Boyle, a Canadian, in October 2012 in Afghanistan. They were held for five years by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network before their dramatic rescue by Pakistani forces. She was pregnant when she was taken captive.

Until reaching out to the Star, Coleman has shunned publicity, with the exception of Saturday night emails to her hometown paper about her memories of growing up in Pennsylvania. “Good friends and great times are not forgotten, even now,” she wrote to the York Daily Record.

Her 34-year-old husband, however, began speaking just hours after landing in Toronto, telling journalists at the airport that his wife had been raped and one of his daughters murdered.

Joshua Boyle, a Canadian who was held hostage by a Taliban-linked group, says they murdered his infant daughter and raped his wife Caitlan Coleman while the family was held in captivity. (Toronto Star)
His statement confirmed what the couple had darkly alluded to in letters and “proof-of-life” videos the captors released. Coleman said she had been “defiled” in front of her children and Boyle wrote vaguely of a terminated pregnancy.

Coleman said Monday that the forced abortion was in retaliation for Boyle’s refusal of Haqqani network efforts to recruit him. “They were very angry because Joshua had been asked to join them, to work for them, and he said no,” she said. “They killed her by dosing the food. They put massive doses of estrogen in the food.”

High levels of estrogen in a pregnancy can force a miscarriage and Coleman says once she lost her baby, whom the couple named “Martyr,” the kidnappers boasted about what they had done.

The Taliban last week issued a statement refuting the claim, saying she miscarried naturally.

Coleman said they kept her other two pregnancies secret, and Boyle delivered both her youngest son and daughter by flashlight as she quietly laboured in pain.

Coleman spoke to the Star Monday alone on the grounds of Ottawa’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, as her husband cared for their sons, who are 4 and 2.

All three of her children, including her months-old daughter, who slept in her lap for part of the interview, have been undergoing tests at the hospital and still adapting to a life free from captivity, which includes trips to a playground on the property. Coleman was also receiving medical attention but said she had been recovering.

She said she’s aware of criticism on social media and elsewhere calling both her and Boyle reckless for travelling in Afghanistan while she was pregnant and then getting pregnant three more times while captive.

“It was a decision we made. We did think about it and talk about it and it’s difficult to explain all the reasons, but, for me, a large part was the fact that it has always been important to me to have a large family,” she said. “This took our life away from us — this captivity with no end in sight. And so I felt that it was our best choice at that time. We didn’t know if we would have that opportunity when we came back. We didn’t know how long it would be. It was already unprecedented, so we couldn’t say, ‘Oh we’ll only be here a year or six months.’ ”

During the interview, she at times laughed at the ridiculousness of a memory — at other times she grew quiet or simply said, “No comment.” She has continued to wear a hijab since returning to Canada but declined Monday to speak about whether she has converted to Islam.

The couple’s willingness to talk so early after their harrowing ordeal is part of what makes this story unique, along with the fact that Boyle was once married to Zaynab Khadr, the sister of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr. Canadian Colin Rutherford, who was released in January 2016 after five years in captivity, has still not spoken publicly about his captivity. Amanda Lindhout, who spent 460 days held hostage in Somalia before her release in 2009, would eventually write a bestselling book and give talks about her survival. But she was hospitalized and underwent intense therapy — which she continues today — for many years before speaking openly.

But Coleman said she hoped by speaking out she could help temper the politicking that is shaping the narrative of their kidnapping and rescue.

Pakistan’s army issued a statement hours after the young family was freed and safe in Islamabad that claimed they were alerted by U.S. agencies that the kidnappers were crossing from Afghanistan, at the Kurram Agency border, into the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in northwestern Pakistan.

U.S. President Donald Trump commented on the release of Joshua Boyle, Caitlan Coleman and their three children. The five are finally free after five years of being held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. (courtesy: The White House/YouTube)
The next day, U.S. President Donald Trump hailed the rescue as “a positive moment for our country’s relationship with Pakistan.”

“The Pakistani government’s co-operation is a sign that it is honouring America’s wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region,” he said in a statement.

For some, the rescue was hailed as deft diplomacy and a direct line drawn from Trump’s hardline stance with Pakistan this summer, when he threatened that Islamabad had “much to lose” if it failed to co-operate on security issues in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Coleman said they were moved quickly from Afghanistan to Pakistan after being kidnapped and the first six or seven months were among the most difficult.

“They first took us out of Afghanistan; it was several days’ drive. They took us to Miran Shah, in Pakistan, where we were kept for more than a year,” she said, adding that Boyle understood some Farsi, which helped them understand at times where they were. “It was very bad. My husband and I were separated at that time. He wasn’t allowed to see Najaeshi or spend any time with us.”

They named their oldest son Najaeshi Jonah.

“Then we were moved to the north of Miran Shah, to the house of a man who said he was called Mahmoud. He was very nice to Najaeshi and would provide us with amenities we wouldn’t have otherwise,” she said. “He would take Najaeshi out to get him sunlight and nobody else did that at any other point.”

In 2014 and 2015, the family was moved often. It was during this time, Coleman says, she had the forced abortion and was raped. “We had a pen they didn’t know about and we were taking little scraps of paper and trying to hand out notes to anyone and everyone that wasn’t one of the guards or commanders involved in killing Martyr,” she said. “But then they took us, separated us, and beat us and that was when the assault on me happened because they wanted us to stop.”

From there, she says, they were moved to Spin Ghar, just over the border in Afghanistan, southeast of Kabul. They were often drugged for the transport and put in the trunk of a vehicle.

“They were always saying you’ll go free in one week or two weeks and this was one of the times they said, ‘We’re going to this new place and one day, two day, maybe a week, you go free, you’re released.’ ”

They gave the houses nicknames, so the Spin Ghar home became “House of One Day.” They were there for months.

“Then they built a custom-built house for us. It was still close, in Spin Ghar. It was not good, not bad. It had problems, but no big problems … After that, we just stayed in a house for a short time, a day or two, because they were clearly running from something. One of them we called Dar el Fake Osama because one of their small commanders came but he was yelling that he was Osama bin Laden and we had to do everything he said,” Coleman said, shaking her head. “It was so bizarre.”

In a place they called the Cat Hotel, as they believed it was a hotel, they could see the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was there that Coleman says the kidnappers acquired a “jingle truck,” one of the brightly painted trucks adorned with bells that are ubiquitous on Pakistan’s roads. They were taken back into Pakistan in an area between Kohat and Bannu, she said.

They spent their final months there in what they called “Dar el Musa” (House of Musa). “Outside every day they were doing some training, or something was going on, and some guy was shouting and we laughed because whoever Musa was, he was not doing a good job,” she said. “He was always yelling, ‘No, no, no, Musa Musa.’ ”

She said they were held mainly in that house from about November 2016 until just two days before the rescue, when they were transferred to “the Mud House,” where the windows were covered with wet, packed dirt.

On Oct. 11, Coleman said, she was put in the trunk of the kidnappers’ car, after which some sort of car chase and gun battle broke out before they were freed.

“Our first fear — why we were not poking our heads up and yelling for help — was our fear that it was another gang trying to kidnap us. Possibly just part of the Haqqani network fighting with another part. They’re all just bandits,” she said.

“You’re a prisoner for so long, you’re so suspicious, I was still thinking we don’t know these people, we don’t know where they’re taking us.”

When she finally realized they were Pakistani forces and she was free, she doesn’t remember breaking down, or exactly how she reacted.

“I think I was mostly just in shock.”

Read more about:
Pakistan, Afghanistan

 

[Dotachin]

A PR stunt turning into a PR nightmare.

 

[Irfan Baloch]

A PR stunt turning into a PR nightmare.

now CIA will claim that they were held at GHQ in Pindi
oh about farsi. Haqqanis speak Pashto. Farsi is spoken by northern alliance,.
looks like CIA made a blunder in its plot story


its a shame that the poor woman is being forced into saying what suits the CIA

now we got three versions

they were abducted in Afghanistan, kept there and freed while crossing into pakistan
CIA then stated no ... they were in Pakistan all along because Haqqanis and GHQ used temporal distortion moving part of Afghanistan inside Pakistan and the awesomeness of Trump made the Pakistanis panic and hand over the couple
now the released woman says she was in Pakistan for little over a year because her husban understood farsi (note Hqqanis speak Pashto and 100% population in Miramshah speaks pashto and its different dialects none of them are farsi).

 

[lastofthepatriots]

now CIA will claim that they were held at GHQ in Pindi
oh about farsi. Haqqanis speak Pashto. Farsi is spoken by northern alliance,.
looks like CIA made a blunder in its plot story


its a shame that the poor woman is being forced into saying what suits the CIA

now we got three versions

they were abducted in Afghanistan, kept there and freed while crossing into pakistan
CIA then stated no ... they were in Pakistan all along because Haqqanis and GHQ used temporal distortion moving part of Afghanistan inside Pakistan and the awesomeness of Trump made the Pakistanis panic and hand over the couple
now the released woman says she was in Pakistan for little over a year because her husban understood farsi (note Hqqanis speak Pashto and 100% population in Miramshah speaks pashto and its different dialects none of them are farsi).

It will make for a good film which I see coming up.

 

[Indika]

now CIA will claim that they were held at GHQ in Pindi
oh about farsi. Haqqanis speak Pashto. Farsi is spoken by northern alliance,.
looks like CIA made a blunder in its plot story


its a shame that the poor woman is being forced into saying what suits the CIA

now we got three versions

they were abducted in Afghanistan, kept there and freed while crossing into pakistan
CIA then stated no ... they were in Pakistan all along because Haqqanis and GHQ used temporal distortion moving part of Afghanistan inside Pakistan and the awesomeness of Trump made the Pakistanis panic and hand over the couple
now the released woman says she was in Pakistan for little over a year because her husban understood farsi (note Hqqanis speak Pashto and 100% population in Miramshah speaks pashto and its different dialects none of them are farsi).

Wait for the fourth version. It seems that both husband & wife were both hand in glove with terrorists but things got messed up later. I am not able to understand how a woman will agree to have another child when her previous child was killed.

Coleman said Monday that the forced abortion was in retaliation for Boyle’s refusal of Haqqani network efforts to recruit him. “They were very angry because Joshua had been asked to join them, to work for them, and he said no,” she said.

 

[MultaniGuy]

So what if he was held in Pakistan for a year?

Who cares.

What will anyone do about it.

 

[takeitwithyou]

Not surprised. Not one bit.

 

[Irfan Baloch]

It will make for a good film which I see coming up.

the guys on youtube were more blunt. their own countrymen are scratching their heads that the couple found time to fck and made multiple children even when allegedly their first child was killed by captors.
now this is messed up

 

[The Sandman]

This drama is just not gonna end

Western media

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistani-forces-free-north-american-family-1507813362

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/pakistan-haqqanis-hostages/542724/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...n-canada-family-says-prayers-answered-n810626


Indian media

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...ey-released/story-LptemLQsGexGAMxAMNrVVM.html

Why so many contradictions suddenly???

 

[Pakistani E]

She said that her kidnappers took them to Miramshah in North Waziristan where they were kept for almost a year, adding that they knew where they were because her husband, Joshua Boyle, could understand some Farsi.

Lol. Only a simpleton ignorant of geography and languages will continue to believe this crap after this childish mistake. Sorry, any credibility that may have been building in mind about this new, third or fourth spun version, has been thrown out the window again.

Keep trying.

 

[WaLeEdK2]

"Boyle understood some Farsi." MAJOR red flag. The haqqanis speak Pashto not Farsi. You would hardly hear Farsi in FATA if not at all.

Getting caught with their pants down yet and yet again. CIA is an incompetent bunch trying face save themselves.

 

[Hyperion]

Now someone tell when did Haqqanis start speaking Farsi????? I mean what the ****!!!!

 

[MultaniGuy]

Something sounds fishy alright.

CIA is tryin to save face which they won't

Canadian American family rescued after five years as captives in Afghanistan

• Caitlan Coleman, Joshua Boyle and three children held by Taliban-linked group
• Couple abducted in Afghanistan and had children in captivity

A still image from a video posted by the Taliban on social media on 19 December 2016 shows American Caitlan Coleman, left, speaking next to her husband, Joshua Boyle, and their two sons. Photograph: Handout/Reuters
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Ashifa Kassam in Toronto and Haroon Janjua in Islamabad

Thursday 12 October 2017 13.48 BSTLast modified on Friday 13 October 2017 01.00 BST

Nearly five years to the day after they were captured by militants linked to the Taliban, an American woman, her Canadian husband and their three children – all of whom were born in captivity – have been rescued, bringing an end to an ordeal the couple described as a “Kafkaesque nightmare”.

Pakistani troops, operating on intelligence provided by the United States, rescued Caitlan Coleman, her husband Joshua Boyle and their children after locating them in the mountainous Kurram Valley region that borders Afghanistan.

“Today they are free,” Donald Trump said on Thursday in a statement confirming their release.

The couple were kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2012 and were believed to be held by the Haqqani network, a group deemed a terrorist organisation by the US.

Boyle’s family said they had received a call from their son early on Thursday morning, describing it as the first time in five years they had been able to speak to him.

“Josh said he was doing pretty well for someone who has spent the last five years in an underground prison,” Patrick Boyle told the Toronto Star. His son also told him that he and Coleman had had a third baby – a girl – who had been born two months earlier.

Boyle told his father that the rescue operation had taken place while the family were locked in the trunk of a car. The last words Boyle heard were “kill the hostages” before a shootout erupted.

The five kidnappers were shot dead, and Boyle was injured by shrapnel, his father told the Star. The family are in Pakistan and are preparing to return to North America in the coming days.

Arrangements had been made for the family to leave Pakistan immediately on a US transport plane, but Boyle had refused to board. A US official said Boyle was concerned that he might face scrutiny by the Americans over his links to Omar Khadr, the Canadian held for 10 years at Guantánamo Bay after being captured as a teenager during a firefight at an al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan. Boyle was briefly married to Zaynab Khadr, Omar’s sister.

The official said Boyle would not face any repercussions by boarding an American plane. “It is not in our intention to do anything like that. We are prepared to bring them back home,” the military official told Agence France-Press.

The Colemans said the FBI had notified the family of the rescue. “The US government called us Wednesday afternoon,” Jim Coleman told ABC News. “They told me to sit down and then they told me what had happened. All they told me was that they were in ‘friendly hands’.”

Lyn Coleman, Caitlan’s mother, said: “I am in a state of euphoria, stunned and overjoyed. Caity and her family’s nightmare is finally over.”

The Pakistani military said US intelligence officials had been tracking the family’s location and had alerted Pakistan after the couple were moved into the Kurram Valley region, a tribal area that borders Afghanistan. “All hostages were recovered safe and sound and are being repatriated to the country of their origin,” the military added.

A senior intelligence official in Islamabad told the Guardian that the Haqqani network had demanded a ransom of 15m rupees and the release of captives from Afghanistan in exchange for the family’s release. The source said the ransom was not paid. It was unclear whether any other concessions were made.

The rescue comes 10 months after the couple’s captors released a video, showing Boyle, now 34, Coleman, 31, and their two children, pleading with their governments to negotiate with their captors.

“We can only ask and pray that somebody will recognize the atrocities these men carry out against us as so-called retaliation, in their ingratitude and hypocrisy,” Coleman told the camera, appearing to read from prepared remarks. “My children have seen their mother defiled.”

She described their years-long ordeal as “the Kafkaesque nightmare in which we find ourselves”.

The couple – who met as teenagers online and bonded over their love of Star Wars fan sites – were abducted in 2012 during a backpacking trip that began in Russia and took them through Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan before their arrival in northern Afghanistan. Coleman, from Pennsylvania, was pregnant with their first child at the time.

Coleman’s parents said they had last heard from their son-in-law in 2012, after he contacted them from an internet cafe in what he described as an “unsafe” part of Afghanistan.

In 2013, the couple appeared in two videos pleading with the US government to free them from the Taliban. Coleman’s parents later told reporters they had received a letter in which their daughter said she had given birth to a second child in captivity.

A letter sent to Boyle’s parents and shared with the Toronto Star last year detailed the lengths the couple had gone to to deliver the child; hiding the pregnancy from captors until Boyle delivered the child in darkness, guided only by a flashlight clenched between his teeth.

“The astonished captors were good and brought all our post-partum needs, so he is now fat and healthy, praise God,” Boyle wrote in the letter to his parents. “We are trying to keep spirits high for the children and play Beautiful Life,” he added, believed to be a reference to Life is Beautiful, the Italian film in which a father shields his son from the realities of a Nazi concentration camp by pretending they are in a game.

In the years prior to his capture, Boyle, from Ontario, was a familiar figure to reporters in Canada. During his brief marriage to Zaynab Khadr, Boyle had become a spokesperson of sorts for the Khadr family, helping Zaynab in her push to raise awareness of her brother’s case.

In a 2009 interview, Boyle detailed his fascination with terrorism, counter-terrorism and security. “Anything related to terrorism on Wikipedia, I wrote, pretty much,” he told the Globe and Mail. His marriage to Khadr lasted about a year.

On Thursday, Trump heralded the rescue as a “positive moment” for the relationship between US and Pakistan “The Pakistani government’s cooperation is a sign that it is honouring America’s wish that it do more to provide security in the region,” Trump said at a White House event. “They worked very hard on this and I believe they are starting to respect the United States again.”

A day earlier, Trump had hinted at an imminent rescue. “America is being respected again,” he told an audience in Pennsylvania. “Something happened today where a country that totally disrespected us called with some very, very important news. And one of my generals came in, they said, you know, I have to tell you, a year ago they would have never done that. It was a great sign of respect. You’ll probably be hearing about it over the next few days.”

US officials have long accused Pakistan’s military and intelligence services of providing cover for militants; they have also criticised them for not doing enough to crack down on the Haqqani network, believed to be responsible for several attacks against the US and allied forces in Afghanistan.

News of the rescue broke on the same day that a US delegation – including senior officials from the state and defense departments – travelled to Islamabad to meet with Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs.

Canada said it had also been actively engaged with the governments of the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan and thanked them on Thursday for their efforts in securing the family’s release.

“We are greatly relieved that after being held hostage for five years, Joshua Boyle and his wife Caitlan Coleman, as well as their young children, have been released and are safe,” the country’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said. “Joshua, Caitlan, their children and the Boyle and Coleman families have endured a horrible ordeal over the past five years. We stand ready to support them as they begin their healing journey.”


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ues-canadian-american-family-hostages-haqqani

Well this newspaper is saying the Canadian family was held up in Afghanistan.

 

[xyxmt]

Any joe, dick and harry can cross into Pakistan from Afghanistan, more reason to fence the border and totally block Afghans...but the bigger point it, they were in Afghanistan, they were captured in Afghanistan, what is NATO doing in Afghanistan if they cannot even provide security to their own citizen. This couple and their children are luck on the back luck of Talibans that they crossed into Pakistan and were rescued had they been in Afghanistan they would still be captive because in Afghanistan if you are one mile away from US forces then they cant help you.