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Swiss couple seeks release in Pakistani Taliban video

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, Oct 26, IRNA -- Pakistani Taliban have released two videos of the kidnapped Swiss couple who have been held hostage for the past four months, local TV channels reported Wednesday.

Swiss nationals David Olivier, 31, and Widmar Daniela, 29, were abducted by unidentified gunmen in the Loralai area of southwestern Balochistan province in July.

They had entered Balochistan as tourists but the officials had said that they had not informed the authorities of their arrival. They also did not have proper permission to enter the area.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has released the videos which were shown by Dawn television on Wednesday. Three armed men are standing behind the couple in the video while they are calling for their release.

Dawn TV said that the video show that the couple are held hostage by the TTP members in North Waziristan tribal region. The US says that the region is the major base of al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban from where they launch cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

The videos show the couple calling upon the governments of Switzerland, the United States and Pakistan to meet the captors’ demands.

The TTP, as reported earlier, said they would release the couple if the US freed Aafia Siddiqui, a female neuro-scientist sentenced in 2010 for attack on US soldiers in Afghanistan and is currently held in the US prison.

“We call upon the Western world to put pressure on America for the release of Aafia Siddiqui,” TTP deputy chief Waliur Rehman had said.

“If the US does not agree to her release then our central ‘Shura’ (council) will take a decision about the Swiss hostages,” he added.

One of the hostages can be seen saying “our lives are at risk” if the demands are not met, in one video.

Sources said that the TTP members had delivered the videos to the local journalists in Miranshah, center of North Waziristan.

TTP sources say that the couple was still alive, but Dawn TV reported that the first video was prepared in August and the second in September.

Official sources say that the several other important Pakistanis are also held hostage by TTP in the Waziristan tribal region including Ajmal Khan, the vice-chancellor of Islamia College University in Peshawar and the son of the former governor of Punjab province.

Taliban use kidnapping as a tool to seek release of their leaders and also receive ransom to run their affairs, officials say.

Taliban have killed two former intelligence officials – Khalid Khawaja and Col. Imam in Waziristan region after their families refused to give money and also the government did not accept demands for the release of Taliban detainees.

**1432
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30631678