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| Afghanistan |
| Freed Hostages Claim Taliban Freed Them Not Govt |
| 2015-11-15 |
| Five of the 31 Zabul bus passengers kidnapped in February arrived in Kabul on Saturday and said it had been the Taliban who freed them from Daesh insurgents. According to one freed hostage, clashes erupted between Taliban and Daesh early this week. Taliban allegedly seized the area from Daesh and then released them, he said. The 31 Zabul bus passengers were kidnapped in February by alleged Daesh militants who had stopped several buses on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. The kidnappers reportedly took the hostages to Khak-Afghan district in Zabul. One freed hostage Mohammad Yusuf said: "We were severely beaten by them [Daesh]. They were very cruel to us and they often warned us that 'we will kill you'." He went on to say that Daesh militants warned: "If government does not swap you we will behead you." The freed hostages said that although government claims it freed eight hostages in an operation, there were only five of them. They also rejected claims that security forces had rescued them and said the Taliban freed them following a clash with Daesh. Another freed hostage Khuda Bakhsh said: "We were freed by Taliban. We were moved by the Taliban to another place where they gave us a key to unlock our handcuffs." However, President Ashraf Ghani maintained earlier this week that a security forces operation had resulted in the successful release of the hostages. He said at the time eight were released. "We are firm on our commitments ... that the release of them [the hostages] was as a result of our operations and sacrifices otherwise the 19 and eight others would not have been free today," Ghani said. The five hostages were part of a group of 31 bus passengers kidnapped in February. One was released hours later and 30 were held captive. Daesh militants were allegedly behind the kidnapping and are believed to have killed five hostages following the incident. Nineteen were freed in an alleged prisoner swap. Six hostages remained – of which public perception was that they had been killed. However, last month another hostage was released. On Monday the remaining five went free and were brought to Kabul on Saturday. On Tuesday, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said in a statement that eight were freed early in the week. However, the freed hostages said it was only the five of them that were released. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 Hear, hear. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-11-15 02:35 |