Family freed returns to Canada, says 1 child killed

Toronto, Oct 14 (AP) Former hostage Joshua Boyle saidupon arriving back in Canada that the Haqqani network inAfghanistan had killed his infant daug...
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Toronto, Oct 14 (AP) Former hostage Joshua Boyle saidupon arriving back in Canada that the Haqqani network inAfghanistan had killed his infant daughter and raped his wifeduring the years they were held in captivity.

Boyle gave the statement shortly after landing in Canadalate yesterday with his American wife, Caitlan Coleman, andthree young children.

The couple was rescued on Wednesday, five years afterthey had been abducted by the Taliban-linked extremist networkwhile in Afghanistan as part of a backpacking trip.

Coleman was pregnant at the time and had four children incaptivity.

The birth of the fourth child had not been publicly knownbefore Boyle appeared before journalists at the Torontoairport.

"The stupidity and evil of the Haqqani network'skidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engagedin helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions ofAfghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil ofauthorising the murder of my infant daughter," he said.

Boyle said his wife was raped by a guard who was assistedby his superiors. He asked for the Afghan government to bringthem to justice.

"God willing, this litany of stupidity will be theepitaph of the Haqqani network," he said.

He said he was in Afghanistan to help villagers "who livedeep inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where no NGO, noaid worker and no government has ever successfully been ableto bring the necessary help."On the plane from London, Boyle provided a writtenstatement to The Associated Press saying his family has"unparalleled resilience and determination."Coleman, who is from Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, sat inthe aisle of the business-class cabin wearing a tan-coloredheadscarf.

She nodded wordlessly when she confirmed her identity toa reporter on board the flight. In the two seats next to herwere her two elder children. In the seat beyond that wasBoyle, with their youngest child in his lap.

US State Department officials were on the plane withthem.

The handwritten statement that Boyle gave the APexpressed disagreement with US foreign policy.

"God has given me and my family unparalleled resilienceand determination, and to allow that to stagnate, to pursuepersonal pleasure or comfort while there is still deliberateand organised injustice in the world would be a betrayal ofall I believe, and tantamount to sacrilege," he wrote.

He nodded to one of the State Department officials andsaid, "Their interests are not my interests."He added that one of his children is in poor health andhad to be force-fed by their Pakistani rescuers.

The family was able to leave the plane with their escortsbefore the rest of the passengers. There was a short delaybefore everyone else was allowed out.

"It will be of incredible importance to my family that weare able to build a secure sanctuary for our three survivingchildren to call a home," he said in his later statement atthe airport. "To try to regain some portion of the childhoodthat they have lost."Dan Boyle, Joshua's younger brother, said outside thefamily home in Smith Falls, Ontario, that he had spoken to hisbrother a few times in the past few days.

"He's doing very well. He sounds a lot like how hesounded five years ago. He sounds like he had his head on hisshoulders and his wits about him," he said.

The Canadian government said in a statement they will"continue to support him and his family now that they havereturned.""Today, we join the Boyle family in rejoicing over thelong-awaited return to Canada of their loved ones," theCanadian government said.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nafees Zakaria,said the Pakistani raid that led to the family's rescue wasbased on a tip from US intelligence and shows that Pakistanwill act against a "common enemy" when Washington sharesinformation.

US officials have long accused Pakistan of ignoringgroups like the Haqqani network.

US officials consider it a terrorist organisation andhave targeted its leaders with drone strikes. But the Haqqanigroup also operates like a criminal network. Unlike theIslamic State group, it does not typically execute Westernhostages, preferring to ransom them for cash.

A US national security official, who was not authorisedto discuss operational details of the release and spoke onlyon condition of anonymity, said the US obtained actionableinformation, passed it to Pakistani government officials,asked them to interdict and recover the hostages, and theydid.

President Donald Trump, who previously had warnedPakistan to stop harboring militants, praised Pakistan for its"cooperation on many fronts." On Twitter, he wrote yesterdaythat the US is starting to develop "a much better relationshipwith Pakistan and its leaders."The operation appeared to have unfolded quickly and endedwith what some described as a dangerous raid, a shootout and acaptor's final, terrifying threat to "kill the hostage."Boyle told his parents that he, his wife and theirchildren were intercepted by Pakistani forces while beingtransported in the back or trunk of their captors' car andthat some of his captors were killed. He suffered only ashrapnel wound, his family said.

US officials did not confirm those details.

A US military official said that a military hostage teamhad flown to Pakistan Wednesday prepared to fly the familyout.

The team did a preliminary health assessment and had atransport plane ready to go, but sometime after daybreakThursday, as the family members were walking to the plane,Boyle said he did not want to board, the official said.

Boyle's father said his son did not want to board theplane because it was headed to Bagram Air Base and the familywanted to return directly to North America.

Another US official said Boyle was nervous about being in"custody" given his family ties.

He was once married to Zaynab Khadr, the older sister offormer Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr and the daughter ofa senior al-Qaida financier. Her father, the late Ahmed SaidKhadr, and the family stayed with Osama bin Laden briefly whenOmar Khadr was a boy.

The Canadian-born Omar Khadr was 15 when he was capturedby US troops following a firefight and was taken to the USdetention center at Guantanamo Bay. Officials had discountedany link between that background and Boyle's capture, with oneofficial describing it in 2014 as a "horrible coincidence."The US Justice Department said neither Boyle nor Colemanis wanted for any federal crime.

The Haqqani network had previously demanded the releaseof Anas Haqqani, a son of the founder of the group, inexchange for turning over the American-Canadian family. In oneof the videos released by their captors, Boyle implored theAfghan government not to execute Taliban prisoners, or he andhis wife would be killed.

US officials have said that several other Americans arebeing held by militant groups in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

They include Kevin King, 60, a teacher at the AmericanUniversity of Afghanistan in Kabul who was abducted in August2016, and Paul Overby, an author in his 70s who had traveledto the region several times but disappeared in easternAfghanistan in mid-2014. (AP)CPS.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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