Coleman gave birth to their children while in captivity.
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An American-Canadian couple kidnapped by the Taliban in 2012 said in a latest video clip that has surfaced that their captors would execute them if the Afghanistan government did not change its policies with regard to the Taliban prisoners, media reported on Wednesday.
In October that year, just before the pair went missing, Joshua sent Coleman’s family a message from an Internet cafe in what he described as an “unsafe” part of Afghanistan.
In 2014, the Boyle and Coleman families chose to make videos of the couple public in light of the publicity surrounding the weekend rescue of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed from Taliban custody in exchange for the release of five high-level Taliban suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Joshua, 33, from Toronto, Canada, appears exhausted and pale in the footage – the first featuring either of them since 2014. In it, she told her family that she had given birth to a second child.
Last month, Jim and Lyn Coleman revealed that they had received a letter from their daughter in November through a neutral party.
The Taliban have appointed a new military chief as the insurgents try to gain more ground in Afghanistan rather than talk peace under a new leadership, Taliban officials said in telephone interviews over the weekend.
“Thank you for sharing such wonderful news”. “Such news has also brought us great sorrow. We desperately want to be with our daughter and hold our grandsons, who we long to meet and care for”.
Caitlan Coleman has been suspected of being in the custody of the Afghan Taliban’s Haqqani network, which has fought USA forces in a lethal insurgency along the border with Pakistan while also operating a lucrative kidnapping for ransom business in both countries.
USA officials said they are aware of reports of the video and are working to free Coleman and her family.
Rashid is the brother of Mohammad Nabi Omari, one of the five Taliban prisoners that President Obama chose to trade for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who also had been a Haqqani prisoner.
Another American is believed to be held by the Haqqani network, but the person’s identity has not been made public. Both incidents are assessed to possibly be in retaliation for the recent death sentence given to Haqqani Network leader Siraj Haqqani’s brother Anas.
August 29 (ANI): A local court in Afghanistan has sentenced Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani’s brother Anas Haqqani to death, reports said.
“If the hostages are still in the umbrella of Haqqani’s criminal enterprises, then this really is a fairly insignificant shot across the bow, because it’s very important to the Haqqani that they protect their prisoners and safeguard their ability to receive ransoms, even if it takes years”, the former official said. The captives said they will be killed if the Afghan government continues executing Taliban prisoners.
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One of Boyle’s relatives said the family hadn’t seen the new video until Tuesday morning.
