Freed hostage accuses Taliban of brutality

SMITHS FALLS, Canada - Freed hostage Joshua Boyle has told public broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corp his children are exploring their new home in Canada but are still very fearful after a brutal yearslong ordeal at the hands of Taliban-linked kidnappers.

Boyle and his US wife and three children were freed on Wednesday in Pakistan after five years of captivity at the hands of the Haqqani network, a militant group that operates on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

In a chilling statement on the family's arrival in Toronto, Boyle accused his kidnappers of murdering their infant daughter and raping his wife, Caitlan Coleman.

Boyle said his priority now was to protect his family.

In a message sent later to Canadian media from his parents' hometown of Smith Falls, around 80 kilometers from Ottawa, the 34-year-old said the family had safely arrived in the first real "home" his children had ever known.

In remarks emailed to CBC, he said the children - boys aged 4 and 2, and a girl just four months old - were starting to adapt to new surroundings after their harrowing ordeal.

The CBC said Boyle told them his 4-year-old was examining Post-it notes and curtains and boardgames.

"Everything in the house, he said, is a wonderland to him, and that said, he is still terrified to leave the house, even to go out on the porch," CBC correspondent Susan Armiston said.

Boyle and his wife were kidnapped by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network in a remote area of Afghanistan in 2012.

The family was freed on Wednesday by Pakistani troops acting on US intelligence.

Visibly angry, Boyle told reporters the network had ordered the killing of their baby - a fourth child, whose existence had not previously been known - as retaliation for his refusal to accept an offer from them.

Boyle also said his wife had been raped, not by a lone guard but with the aid of the captain of the guard and a Haqqani commander he identified as Abu Hajr.

Boyle said both incidents took place in 2014, some two years after they were taken captive.

He said the Taliban had confirmed the crimes took place, in an investigation in 2016, and called on the group's leaders to take action against the "criminal miscreants".

However, on Sunday, the Taliban denied his claims, saying Coleman had a "natural miscarriage".

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 10/16/2017 page11)