Hostages were rescued or set free?
WASHINGTON: Details and circumstances of the return of the American woman, Caitlan Coleman, and her family from their captors remained sparse but the United States has pushed back against accounts sourced to Pakistani officials that it was a “rescue” operation marked by hostile confrontation with their captors.
The operation was carried out by Pakistani intelligence operatives — supposedly from InterServices Intelligence, that has long been a source of mounting frustration and annoyance in the United States — with the army providing perimeter protection, unidentified Pakistani officials told CNN, which went on to add, citing them, a gunfight broke out with the captors and an unspecified number of them were killed.
Coleman, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their three children had been intercepted while being moved from one location to another in Pakistan’s notoriously lawless western parts bordering Afghanistan by their captors, the Haqqani Network, which is deeply entrenched in the area, sheltered by their patrons, the Pakistani military and the ISI.
According to NBC news, the rescuers shot the tires of their vehicle to stop it.
“We destroyed their tires. The hostages remained inside the vehicle.
“The driver, and an accomplice, managed to escape to a nearby refugee camp. There is a search operation underway for them right now, Major General. Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, told NBC.
US officials pushed back, but ever so gently, grateful for the help and cooperation they had received.
“I cannot confirm that,” state department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters when asked to confirm reports that “Pakistani officials say that the family was rescued”.