Freed US hostage disputes all accounts of her family's captivity

Does not respond to question over her possible conversion to Islam

In her first public comments since the US-Canadian family's dramatic rescue by Pakistani forces near the Pak-Afghan border on October 11, Caitlan Coleman has disputed the accounts of the US, Pakistani and Afghan governments regarding her family's movements.

According to an interview, she gave to the Toronto Star on Monday, she claimed that her family had been in Pakistan for over a year when Pakistani forces rescued them.

The Pakistani military had been told by US intelligence agencies that they had tracked the hostages being moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan roughly two weeks ago



Until now, she has avoided talking to the press, unlike her husband, Canadian Joshua Boyle, who has spoken on the abuse their family suffered at the hands of their captors.

In her interview, Coleman confirmed accounts of her having been raped and forced to have an abortion. The assault was perpetrated as punishment for trying to elicit help from strangers while they were being relocated, and the abortion was forced by giving her large doses of estrogen after her husband refused to join the Haqqani network.

She addressed the criticism directed at the US-Canadian couple for backpacking across Central Asia when she was so heavily pregnant, and having three more children while in captivity.

According to her, they had made the decision to travel after having considered the risks- and decided to fulfill their desire to have a large family as they did not know when they would be released and whether they would be able to have children afterwards.



She stated that she was in shock once she released that the Pakistani army had rescued them on October 11.

The Afghan Taliban have categorically denied claims by the CIA that the American-Canadian couple were held hostage inside Pakistan for five years before being freed last week.

Coleman did not respond to question over her possible conversion to Islam, nor has she addressed her continued wearing of a hijab since her rescue.

“They were not on Pakistan’s soil but in Paktia [province of] Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid told The Express Tribune in an exclusive email interview.

He added that only a few days before their rescue, the hostage family was transferred via the [Pak-Afghan] border area to Kunar province.