Family freed from Taliban captivity back in Canada
OTTAWA (AFP) — Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife and three children arrived in Toronto late on Friday after being freed from captivity in Pakistan, the Canadian government announced.
Boyle and his wife Caitlan Coleman were captured by the Taliban while hiking in Afghanistan in 2012, and then turned over to the affiliated militant Haqqani network in Pakistan.
All three of their children were born in captivity.
“Today, we join the Boyle family in rejoicing over the long-awaited return to Canada of their loved ones,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Canada has been actively engaged in Mr. Boyle’s case at all levels, and we will continue to support him and his family now that they have returned,” it said, asking that the family’s privacy be respected.
The family was freed by Pakistani forces acting on information received from the United States (US) intelligence services.
Boyle refused a return trip aboard a US military aircraft last Thursday, over concerns he could face American scrutiny over his previous marriage to the sister of a Guantanamo detainee.
He chose to fly back from Islamabad to Canada on commercial airlines via London.
In 2009, Boyle was married to Zaynab Khadr, the sister of Omar Khadr, a Canadian captured in battle in 2002 in Afghanistan and held at the US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay before being turned over to Canada and released in 2015.
Boyle was active in the campaign to win Khadr’s release from Guantanamo and transfer to Canada.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said last Thursday that Boyle was not a target of investigation in Canada.
Boyle’s parents live 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Ottawa.