Top Afghan MP raises questions on rescue of Canadian-US family

Unsubstantiated allegations by Afghan senate chief are likely to garner suspicion

US President Donald Trump’s praise for Pakistan over the recent rescue of a Canadian-American family from the Taliban apparently didn’t go down well with some politicians in Afghanistan.

In an absurd statement that would find no takers, the Afghan Senate chairman has claimed that the Pakistan Army’s rescue operation triggered by an American intelligence tip-off was an attempt to divert world’s attention from alleged terror sanctuaries in the tribal regions.

American Caitlan Coleman, 31, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle, 34, and their three children born in captivity had been held hostage by the Haqqani network since 2012.

Pakistani troops, acting on American intelligence, opened fire on Wednesday at the tyres of a car carrying the hostages not long after it crossed the border into Kurram Agency from the eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Paktia.



“Canadian family’s release by the Pakistani military was a move to divert the attention of the international community, specifically the US at a time when the pressures were unprecedented due to the safe havens of terror groups,” Khaama Press quoted Fazal Hadi Muslimyar as saying during a general session of the upper house of Afghan parliament.

Coleman was pregnant with their first child in 2012 when they decided to go hiking in Afghanistan’s Wardak province, a dangerous region south of Kabul that is dominated by feuding militant groups.

“The family was kept inside the Pakistani territory for several years and Pakistan used the opportunity to use the Afghan soil and create a scenario to divert the attention and pressures from Islamabad,” Muslimyar claimed.



The absurd claim, which shows utter disregard for Pakistan Army’s efforts, came a day after four troops hunting for the kidnappers of the Canadian family were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Kurram Agency.

At a time when global media is all praise for the Pakistani military for its efficient action which led to the successful and safe recovery of the hostage family, the unsubstantiated allegations by the top Afghan lawmaker, who is an staunch critic of Islamabad, are likely to raise many eyebrows.