Abducted Australian woman set free in Afghanistan
SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian aid worker who was kidnapped in Afghanistan four months ago has been freed and is ‘’safe and well’’, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Monday.
Katherine Jane Wilson, who goes by the name Kerry and is reportedly aged around 60, was grabbed in the city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan, in late April.
She had been visiting the city for a women’s embroidery project when gunmen abducted her, Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, told AFP at the time.
He said she was taken before dawn from the home in which she was staying by ‘’unidentified gunmen’’ who were disguised as police.
‘’I confirm that Kerry Jane Wilson, who was abducted in Afghanistan in April this year, has been released, and she is now safe and well,’’ Bishop said in a statement.
The minister, who has previously said Australia does not pay ransom for kidnappers, voiced relief for Wilson and her family but would not provide details of how she was freed.