Taliban release Greek hostage: Pakistani officials

[Omar1984]

CHITRAL: Afghan Taliban have released a Greek man safe and well seven months after he was kidnapped in northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said Thursday.

“He is with us. He is safe. It was a difficult task but our intelligence agencies did this job,” Rahmatullah Wazir, the top administrative official in Pakistan's Chitral valley, told AFP by telephone.

Local elders from Chitral had been negotiating with those holding Athanassios Lerounis in the neighbouring Afghan province Nuristan, the official said.

He was kidnapped on September 7 while working for an aid group among the ethnic Kalash community in the mountains of Chitral.

“He was with Afghan Taliban in the Afghan province of Nuristan. The negotiations succeeded. He reached Chitral late last night,” Wazir said.

“He's in a good health.”

The group had demanded a ransom and that Pakistan release three detained Afghan Taliban leaders, but Wazir said none of their demands had been met and that Lerounis had been released unconditionally.

Mohammad Jafer, a senior police official in Chitral, confirmed the recovery following negotiations for his safe release.

There was no immediate comment from the Greek embassy in Islamabad.

Greece's Athens News Agency reported last October that negotiations were underway for Lerounis's release after his Taliban-affiliated kidnappers demanded a ransom and the release of three Taliban leaders held in Pakistan.

Some Kalash are fair with light-coloured eyes, leading to academic speculation that they might be descended from an ancient Middle Eastern population or even from soldiers of Alexander the Great's army which conquered the area in the fourth century BC.


DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Taliban release Greek hostage: Pakistani officials

 

[Desert Fox]

Really happy for this man!

 

[sparklingway]

Thankfully, the bastards have returned him safe and sound and not in a bag.

Taliban release Greek social worker
Friday, April 09, 2010

By our correspondent

CHITRAL: The Greek social worker, Professor Athanasios Lerounis, who was kidnapped by Nuristan-based Afghan Taliban from Bamburet valley six months ago, reached Chitral on Wednesday, official sources said on Thursday.

“Professor Athanasios Lerounis was handed over to the Pakistani authorities in Orsun village of Chitral along the Afghan border early on Wednesday,” the sources said, requesting anonymity. Though the Taliban were demanding the release of four important Taliban leaders, only one Afghan Taliban commander, Rahmatuddin Nuristani, was set free to secure the safe release of Prof Lerounis, the sources said. The commander, also known as Rahmatuddin Siddiqui, was arrested by security forces in a raid in Swabi district of the NWFP.

Some sources said the government also paid ransom to secure the safe release of the Greek national. Chitral’s District Coordination Officer Rahmatullah Wazir, however, insisted that his release was secured unconditionally by Pakistan’s security agencies.

The law-enforcement agencies produced the Greek social worker in a court in Chitral city to record his statement but journalists were not allowed to meet him. He was later shifted to an undisclosed location and was reportedly in the care of the intelligence agencies. Prof Athanasios was kidnapped on September 7, 2009 from the Kalash-Dur, a wood-hewn museum built by him in Baroon village in Bumboret with financial assistance from the Hellenic Aid Society of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs to preserve the Kalash culture.

He was kidnapped by the Afghan Taliban and was shifted to the bordering Afghan province of Nuristan. The kidnappers killed a policeman and injured two others, including a cop and Prof Athanasios’ servant, when they offered resistance to foil the kidnapping bid.

At least, three delegations comprising elders from Chitral, including notables from the Kalash valley, visited Nuristan to secure the release of Prof Athanasios. Though they failed to secure his release, they brought pictures of the kidnapped Greek national and conveyed the Taliban’s demands to the government.

The Afghan Taliban were demanding the release of their three top commanders including Mulla Obaidullah, former spokesman Ustad Yasir and Rahmatuddin Siddiqui from the captivity of security agencies in Pakistan. There were reports of a rift in Afghan Taliban ranks on the issue as some were critical of the kidnapping of the Greek national from the Pakistani territory.

Mulla Dost Mohammad, the Taliban ‘shadow’ governor of Nuristan, was reportedly inflexible on the issue while other Taliban figures wanted to be flexible. The Pakistani authorities were willing much earlier to free Taliban commander Rahmatuddin Siddiqui in exchange for Prof Athanasios.

The Kalash people also staged protests time and again, asking the government to secure the safe release of their Greek benefactor and even threatened to migrate from the valley if he was not recovered.

Prof Athanasios came to Chitral in 1994 as a tourist and visited the Kalash valley of Bamburet, Birir and Rambor. He developed fascination for the Kalash culture and later as chairman of the NGO, Greek Volunteers, he worked hard to protect the unique Kalash culture. The museum he built also housed a small dispensary and a school for the Kalash people. He also worked selflessly for the Muslim community living in the area and a jirga of local three times visited Nuristan to prevail upon the Afghan Taliban to release him.

 

[Nahraf]

Nuristanis and Kalash are considered to be part of Indo-Aryan tribes that migrated and settled in South Asia over three thousand years ago. Alexander the Great encountered them and did not recognize them as Hellenes i.e Greeks. Some Greek organizations and officials in their government want to have relations with Nuristanis to convince them that they are related to Greeks. Then Greeks will have cultural and religious influence in Nuristan and Chitral areas of Pakistan. This is a dangerous game that Greeks are playing and it will have long term repurcussions.