THE CAR CHASE THAT FREED HOSTAGES

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani troops shot out the tyres of a vehicle carrying a kidnapped US-Canadian couple and their children in a raid that led to the family’s release after five years of being held hostage, a Pakistani security official said on Friday.

US drones were hovering near the northwestern Pakistani area where Caitlan Coleman, her husband Joshua Boyle and their three kids, all born in captivity, were freed, another security official said. A senior Pakistani security source on Friday detailed how the family were freed following a car chase in the northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

He said Pakistani troops and intelligence agents, acting on a US intelligence tip, zeroed in on a vehicle holding the family as they were being moved into Kurram tribal agency near the town of Kohat, some 60 km inside Pakistan. Agents from Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence and soldiers attempted to intercept the vehicle, but it sped away, according to the security source.

“Our troops fired at the vehicle and burst its tyres,” he said, declining to be identified because he is not authorised to speak openly to the media.

The kidnappers managed to escape, the security official added, saying the troops wouldn’t fire at the fleeing captors for fear of harming the hostages. The army recovered the hostages safely from the car.