The Pakistani army has asserted this Thursday that it has released the Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and his three children, after receiving information from the United States that they had been transferred to Pakistan from Afghanistan, where they were Kidnapped by the Taliban in 2012.
“All the hostages have been recovered safely and will be repatriated to their country of origin,” the Pakistani Military Communication office (ISPR) said in a statement.
The military claimed that American intelligence informed them that the abductees had been transferred to Pakistani territory on 11 October through the Khurram tribal zone, bordering Afghanistan.
“Success underscores the importance of sharing intelligence and Pakistan’s commitment to combating this threat through cooperation between the two forces (Americans and Pakistanis) against the common enemy,” said ISPR.
Boyle and Coleman were abducted in 2012 in Afghanistan, where they had traveled as part of a journey through several Asian Soviet republics, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The Taliban published in December 2016 a video of the couple accompanied by two of their children born in captivity in which they asked for help to the then President of the United States, Barack Obama, and his successor, Donald Trump.
The release of Boyle, Coleman and his children occurs at a time of tension between Pakistan and the USA, after Trump asserted on August 21 that Islamabad had “much to lose” if it continues to “harbor” terrorists. Islamabad denied the allegations and postponed several official trips between the two countries, including the foreign minister, Khawaja Asif, who traveled to Washington seven weeks later.
The Pakistani Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution proposing the closure of supply routes to Afghanistan for US and NATO forces on 30 August.
