Trudeau thanks allies for Canadian family’s rescue

Mexico City, Oct 13 (IANS) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed his gratitude to his nation's allies for their help in rescuing a native family from the Taliban who held them hostage since 2012 .

Trudeau, who is currently in Mexico, told reporters that he would like to thank Canada's allies and friends for their work in achieving "a positive resolution to the five-year hostage situation", Efe news reported.

"We're pleased that the ordeal that they've been through these past years has finally come to an end," he said at the press conference.

The Pakistani military on Thursday carried out an operation to free Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three children, after receiving a tip-off from the US that the family had been transferred from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Trudeau assured that Canada would continue to work with its allies and would maintain contact with the Boyle family.

He added that Canada wanted to offer as much help as possible to the family so that the situation would return to normal.

In a statement released on Thursday in Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the Canadian government was relieved that the Boyle family was released and thanked the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan for their joint efforts in the rescue mission.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement on Thursday said the hostages were rescued "through an intelligence-based operation by Pakistani troops and the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)".

"They were captured by terrorists from Afghanistan in 2012 and kept as hostages there," the ISPR said.

"US intelligence agencies had been tracking them and shared their shifting across to Pakistan on October 11, through the Kurram Agency border," the ISPR said.

The rescued hostages were "being repatriated to their country of origin", it added.