Captors killed baby, Canadian claims
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban-linked captors who held American Caitlan Coleman and her family for five years killed her infant daughter and allowed Coleman to be raped by a guard, her husband said, introducing a dramatic new layer to a saga that was already marked by mystery.
Joshua Boyle’s revelations, which authorities have not confirmed, came after the couple and three of their children were rescued last week in Pakistan, where their Haqqani network captors had taken them from Afghanistan. The operation by the Pakistani military, which was tipped off by US intelligence, may buoy relations between the two countries.
Reading from a statement after the family arrived in Toronto on Saturday, Boyle, a Canadian citizen, made his allegations calmly and declined to elaborate.
‘‘The stupidity and the evil of the Haqqani network in the kidnapping of a pilgrim . . . was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorising the murder of my infant daughter,’’ Boyle said, adding that the killing was in ‘‘retaliation for my repeated refusal to accept an offer’’ that the Haqqanis had made. He did not specify what the offer was.
He also denounced ‘‘the stupidity and evil of the subsequent rape of my wife, not as a lone action by one guard, but assisted by the captain of the guard and supervised by the commandant’’.
Pakistani officials would not comment on the allegations, and the State Department declined to comment, citing respect for the family’s privacy. A Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan did not respond to messages seeking reaction.
The Haqqani network, a familybased guerrilla group with roots in southeastern Afghanistan, is closely affiliated with the Taliban and is considered the most lethal and resilient enemy of US forces there. Headquartered in the Pakistan border area, it also held US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five years, during which he reportedly was kept chained or in a cage and was frequently beaten. Bergdahl was released in a 2014 prisoner swap in exchange for five Taliban figures held by the United States.
‘‘Generally, they don’t treat prisoners humanely,’’ said Hamed Daqeeq, a former Afghan government official who is now a political analyst in Kabul. In the past, freed detainees ‘‘spoke of being tortured and beaten badly by the group,’’ he said.
The Haqqanis, many of whose leaders have been killed in US drone strikes in Pakistan over the years, also are allegedly responsible for the 2009 suicide attack on a CIA facility near the eastern Afghan city of Khost, in which seven CIA officers and contractors were killed.
Coleman and Boyle were abducted in October 2012 while travelling in a remote area of Afghanistan outside Kabul.
Boyle was previously married to the sister of Omar Khadr, once the youngest detainee at the US military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.
Boyle said he and Coleman were in Afghanistan to help villagers ‘‘who live deep inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where no NGO, no aid worker and no government has ever successfully been able to bring the necessary help.’’ The couple had previously claimed that they were on a six-month hiking trip through Central Asia.
At the time, Coleman was pregnant, and she gave birth to her children in captivity. Before the new allegations, the couple was believed to have three children, who were rescued with their parents. In a video released last year, Coleman said her family was in a ‘‘Kafkaesque nightmare’’ and that her children had ‘‘seen their mother defiled’’. - Washington Post