Escape from hell

Two boys kidnapped by the Taliban on September 1 from Bajaur Agency have been able to return home after escaping.

Two boys who had been kidnapped by the Taliban on September 1 from Bajaur Agency, while out on a picnic, have been able to return home after escaping from their captors based in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. However, over two dozen teenagers and men remain hostage with the Taliban, who abducted them because they belong to a local tribe that had raised an anti-Taliban lashkar. They are being held in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, where the Taliban took them after their abduction. In exchange for their return, the militants are demanding the release of all their comrades held in Pakistani jails. Complying with this demand, however, would be tantamount to surrender and would serve to only embolden the kidnappers. Indeed they know no other way to think, or act — and they know no mercy. We do not know in what conditions they are being held or how they are being treated but it would be fair to say that no one this young should have to undergo such a harrowing experience.

But while negotiations with the Taliban are almost certainly inadvisable, something needs to be done on the basis of both humanity and morality to rescue the other kidnapped boys. This is all the more so since the encouragement given to tribesmen in various areas to take on the Taliban contributed to the revenge taken by them, especially since in many cases the state has not come to their aid. The authorities cannot, and should not, remain completely indifferent to the situation or what must be the terrible suffering of the families whose sons or brothers have remained missing for almost six weeks. This is a situation where closer ties with Kabul would have come in handy. Since the missing youngsters are in Kunar, Pakistan needs to use all the help it can, and this should include talking to the governor of the Afghan province. It would be unlikely for the Taliban to keep them in Kunar without the knowledge of the local administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2011.