In the undated video, Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman plead for help from their governments to stop the Afghan government from executing Taliban-linked prisoners.
Advertisement
In July of this year, Coleman’s parents revealed they had been sent a letter by their daughter claiming she had given birth to a second child in captivity.
On a backpacking trip to Afghanistan in 2012, American Joshua Boyle and his Canadian wife Caitlan Coleman were kidnapped by the Taliban and held hostage ever since.
The release of a video showing a United States and a Canadian citizen held hostage by the Taliban is created to pressure the Afghan government not to impose the death sentence on the son of a feared militant leader, a Taliban source said on Wednesday.
This isn’t the first hostage video involving Boyle and Coleman.
They call on Canada and the United States to pressure Afghanistan into changing its policy, saying their kidnappers are terrified of being executed by the state.
A Taliban spokesman says the video is not new and was recorded in 2015, adding that Boyle, Coleman and their two children remain in captivity and in good health.
Boyle said their Taliban captors are “are terrified of the thought of their own mortality approaching, and are saying that they will take reprisals on our family”.
The Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security (NDS), said the militants belonged to Quetta Council, a term normally referenced to the Taliban group and Haqqani Network leadership based in Pakistan.
The United States said Tuesday it was still examining the video.
In a statement to The Associated Press Tuesday, Global Affairs Canada spokesman Michael O’Shaughnessy said the government will not comment further or release any information that might risk endangering the safety of Canadian citizens overseas, he added.
Over the years, the family has received videos and notes from their loved ones demonstrating that they are still alive. “Please grant them an opportunity to continue their lives with us, and bring peace to their families”.
Advertisement
The U.S. officials later handed over Anas to Afghan authorities. The families said they were disappointed that their children and grandchild were not freed as part of the same deal but were still holding out hope for the USA and Canadian governments to secure their release on humanitarian grounds.
