‘Taliban killed my daughter’
FORMER hostage Joshua Boyle says the Haqqani network in Afghanistan killed his infant daughter and raped his American wife during the five years they were held in captivity.
Mr Boyle gave the statement after landing in Canada yesterday with his wife, Caitlan Coleman, and three children.
The couple was rescued on Wednesday, five years after they had been abducted by the Taliban-linked extremist network while in Afghanistan as part of a backpacking trip.
Ms Coleman was pregnant at the time and had four children in captivity.
The birth of the fourth child had not been publicly known before Mr Boyle appeared before journalists at the Toronto airport.
“The stupidity and evil of the Haqqani network’s kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorising the murder of my infant daughter,” he said.
Mr Boyle said his wife was raped by a guard who was assisted by his superiors. He asked for the Afghan Government to bring them to justice.
“God willing, this litany of stupidity will be the epitaph of the Haqqani network,” he said.
He said he was in Afghanistan to help villagers who live deep inside Talibancontrolled territory.
On the plane from London, Mr Boyle provided a written statement saying: “God has given me and my family unparalleled resilience and determination, and to allow that to stagnate, to pursue personal pleasure or comfort while there is still deliberate and organised injustice in the world would be a betrayal of all I believe, and tantamount to sacrilege.” AP