Afghan Senate chairman questions rescue of N. American family

Kabul, Oct 16 (IANS) US President Donald Trumps praise for Pakistan over the recent rescue of a Canadian-American family from the Taliban apparently didnt go down well with some politicians in Afghanistan.

In a statement, 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 the "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.

"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 the 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 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.

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