Peshawar (Web Desk): The Afghan Taliban on Sunday rejected allegations from rescued Canadian Joshua Boyle that the militants raped his wife and killed one of their infant children while the family was being hostage.
Spokesperson for the Afghan Taliban Zabihullah Mujahid said that they never raped Boyle’s wife, Caitlan Coleman, and never even parted the pair from each other in the past five years that they were in captivity.
The Afghanistan-based spokesperson said the Taliban have a long history of jihad. “We have taken many foreigners hostage during our operations in the country and in the last three decades, but we have never allowed our commanders to violate the rule of jihad,” he said.
“We have harsh rules for all commanders, foot soldiers and followers – never endanger the life of minors, women and those who left their women during the fight,” he said, adding Boyle’s claims were “baseless”.
Mujahid further claimed that that the group had never raped any woman or man in their custody or hostages meant to be exchanged for Taliban prisoners
“We strongly reject the claims of the hostage recently freed from custody of the Haqqani network,” he added.
The spokesperson further claimed that the freed couple’s minor child had died during custody because they were in a remote Afghan village, where they had no medical team at the camp or a female doctor in nearby cities.
“This is why the baby died during birth,” he said. “If we had killed her, why are the rest of the children still alive?”
Mujahid further said that they never the parted the pair from each other and they lived like a family.
“In the last five years, we never recorded any complaints from them. Whatever they are saying now is under an evil design to defame the Mujahideen and their struggles,’ he claimed.
The Candian-American couple and their two children were freed by the Pakistan Army earlier this week in an intelligence-based operation from Nawa Kali village near Kurram Agency along the Pak-Afghan border. They were flown to Canada on Friday where Boyle told the media that one of his children had been murdered and his wife had been raped while in Taliban custody.
