Freed hostage Joshua Boyle says captors killed infant daughter, raped his wife
Freed hostage Joshua Boyle says captors killed infant daughter, raped his wife
Joshua Boyle speaks after years as a hostage
Freed years after being taken hostage in Afghanistan, Canadian Joshua Boyle is condemning his captors, saying they raped his wife and authorized “the murder of my infant daughter.”
Speaking to reporters from the Toronto airport, Boyle said he wants to build a “secure sanctuary” for his three surviving children.
Boyle and his wife, Caitlan Coleman, were abducted five years ago while travelling in Afghanistan and were being held by the Haqqani network.
Coleman was pregnant with their first child when they were captured by a militant group linked to the Taliban. The three children who returned to Canada — two boys and a girl — were born while the family was being held hostage. The birth of a second girl had been unknown until Boyle made his statement at the airport.
Boyle said he travelled to the country to help “the most neglected minority group in the world, those ordinary villagers who live deep inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.”
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Boyle didn’t provide specific details but said the “stupidity and evil of the Haqqani network’s kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter, martyr Boyle, as retaliation for my repeated refusal to accept an offer that the criminal miscreants of the Haqqani network had made to me.”
He said he wants justice and won’t allow the Haqqani network to weaken his family’s commitment to “do the right thing, no matter the cost.”
On the plane from London, Boyle provided a written statement to The Associated Press saying his family has “unparalleled resilience and determination.”
Coleman sat in the aisle of the business class cabin wearing a tan-colored headscarf. She nodded wordlessly when she confirmed her identity to an Associated Press reporter on board the flight. In the two seats next to her were her two elder children. In the seat beyond that was Boyle, with their youngest child in his lap. U.S. State Department officials were on the plane with them.
He nodded to one of the state department officials and said, “Their interests are not my interests.”
One of his children is in poor health and reportedly had to be force fed by their Pakistani rescuers.
When he spoke at the Toronto airport late Friday, Boyle said he wanted to give his children a chance to build a home and “try to regain some portion of the childhood that they have lost.”
‘Long-awaited return’
Earlier Friday evening, Global Affairs Canada welcomed the family’s return.
“Today, we join the Boyle family in rejoicing over the long-awaited return to Canada of their loved ones,” the ministry said in a statement that asked for privacy for the family.
“Canada has been actively engaged on Mr. Boyle’s case at all levels, and we will continue to support him and his family now that they have returned.”
It’s not clear where the family is heading. Boyle’s parents live in the Ottawa area, and prior to the kidnapping the couple had been living in Perth-Andover, N.B.
Pakistan said Thursday it had rescued the family after the captors moved them across the border from Afghanistan.
Coleman is from Stewartstown, Pa. In an interview with ABC News on Friday, her father, Jim Coleman, said he is angry at Boyle for taking her to Afghanistan.
“Taking your pregnant wife to a very dangerous place, to me, and the kind of person I am, is unconscionable,” he said.
Linda and Patrick Boyle said Thursday that they couldn’t be more excited for the family to return to Canada. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Earlier, Patrick Boyle said the family was safe “but exhausted.”
He told reporters his son had been hit by shrapnel during the events leading to their release, which reportedly involved dozens of Pakistani army members. Joshua Boyle suffered a leg injury as a result, his father said.
Boyle’s mother told reporters on Thursday that the family is still facing “really tough times.”
“They kept themselves strong for so long, for each other and for the kids,” Linda Boyle said. “I think it’s going to catch up with them, and they’re probably going to have some real crashes, I expect, but we’re here for them.”
Rescue near Afghan-Pakistan border
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has met with Joshua Boyle’s parents in the past, said Thursday that their son and his family had endured an “absolutely horrible ordeal.”
Freeland refused to describe the circumstances of the release, citing security reasons, but said Canada had been working with the U.S., Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking in Mexico City, thanked U.S. and Pakistani officials for their efforts in freeing Boyle and his wife and children.
“We’re pleased that the ordeal they’ve been through over these past years has finally come to an end,” Trudeau said Thursday night during a news conference.
This undated photo provided by the Coleman family shows Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman. (Coleman Family/Associated Press)