Prague paid $6m ransom for its women captives

PRAGUE: The Czech government paid a $6-million ransom to secure the release last year of two women kidnapped Pakistan, the Respekt weekly reports in its Monday edition.

Czech psychology students Hana Humpalova and Antonie Chrastecka, both 24 at the time, were seized by armed men in March 2013 in Balochistan, near the borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

The pair had entered from Iran as tourists and were escorted into Pakistan by a tribal policeman.

In a video released shortly after their kidnapping, the two young women had pleaded for the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, jailed in 2010 in the United States on charges of terrorist links.

After two years in captivity, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka announced the women’s release and return to Prague on March 28, 2015.

Negotiations with the kidnappers on the payment of a ransom were carried out by the Czech state’s security council, according to Respekt.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th,  2016.