Parents of mother-of-three freed from Taliban captivity angry with son-in-law
The parents of an American woman freed with her family after five years of captivity say they are elated, but also angry at their son-in law for taking their daughter to Afghanistan.
"Taking your pregnant wife to a very dangerous place, to me, and the kind of person I am, is unconscionable," Caitlan Coleman's father, Jim, told ABC News.
Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle were abducted by a Taliban-linked extremist network in October 2012 while on a backpacking trip that took them to Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and then to Afghanistan.
She was pregnant at the time and had three children in captivity.
Two Pakistani security officials said the family left by plane from Islamabad on Friday.
Mr Boyle's family has said the couple's plan is to return to Canada.
Ms Coleman is from Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, and Mr Boyle is Canadian.
She was "naive," but also "adventuresome" with a humanitarian bent, her father said in 2012.
Jim Coleman said in the ABC interview he did not understand why Mr Boyle had refused to let his family leave the region on a US military plane, which complicated their exit from the country.
The father said that, if he had seen an American aircraft after being held captive, he would be "running for it".
Still Ms Coleman's mother, Lynda, said the opportunity to finally speak to her daughter after she was freed was "incredible".
"I've been waiting to hear that voice for so long. And then to hear her voice and have it sound exactly like the last time I talked to her," she said.
Pakistan's foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the Pakistani raid that led to the family's rescue was based on a tip from US intelligence and shows that Pakistan will act against a "common enemy" when Washington shares information.
US officials have long accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to groups like the Haqqani network, which was holding the family.
Earlier this year, US president Donald Trump warned Pakistan to stop harbouring militants.
On Thursday, Mr Trump praised Pakistan for its willingness to "do more to provide security in the region" and said the release suggests other "countries are starting to respect the United States of America once again".
The operation appeared to have unfolded quickly and ended with what some described as a dangerous raid, a shootout and a captor's final, terrifying threat to "kill the hostage".
Mr Boyle told his parents that he, his wife and their children were intercepted by Pakistani forces while being transported in the trunk of their captors' car and that some of his captors were killed.
He suffered only a shrapnel wound, his family said.
US officials did not confirm those details.
A US military official said a military hostage team had flown to Pakistan on Wednesday, prepared to fly the family out.
The team did a preliminary health assessment and had a transport plane ready to go.
But sometime after daybreak on Thursday, as the family members were walking to the plane, Mr Boyle said he did not want to board.
Mr Boyle's father said his son did not want to board the plane because it was headed to Bagram Air Base and that the family wanted to return directly to North America.
Another US official said Mr Boyle was nervous about being in "custody" given his family ties.
He was once married to Zaynab Khadr, the older sister of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr and the daughter of a senior al Qaida financier.
Her father, the late Ahmed Said Khadr, and the family stayed with Osama bin Laden briefly when Omar Khadr was a boy.
The Canadian-born Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured by US troops following a firefight and was taken to the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.
Officials had discounted any link between that background and Mr Boyle's capture, with one official describing it in 2014 as a "horrible coincidence".
The US Justice Department said neither Mr Boyle nor Ms Coleman is wanted for any federal crime.
The couple told US officials and their families they wanted to fly commercially to Canada.
"They've made that clear and everybody on both sides the border knows that and they are working on that very hard," Mr Boyle's father said.
Ms Coleman's parents last had a conversation with their son-in-law on October 8 2012, via an email sent from an internet cafe he had described as being in an "unsafe" part of Afghanistan.
From then on, there were only desperate hostage videos released by their captors and hand-scrawled letters mailed home.
"I pray to hear from you again, to hear how everybody is doing," read one letter the parents shared with the online Circa News service in July 2016, in which Ms Coleman revealed she had given birth to a second child in captivity.
It was unclear whether they knew she had had a third.
Mr Boyle's parents say their son told them in a letter that he and his wife pretended to the children that signs of their captivity were part of a game being played with guards.
AP
