|
Female Afghan MP freed for Taliban detainees: official
[Dawn] A female Afghan parliamentarian was freed by the Taliban on Saturday in exchange for several bully boys, a provincial politician said. The Taliban said the freed prisoners were "four innocent women and two children."Talibs often use kidnap victims as bargaining chips to gain the freedom of their fellow krazed killers, and the Afghan government is generally unwilling to discuss details of what such negotiations involve. Fariba Ahmadi Kakar's abduction a month ago was also one of a string of attacks on prominent women in Afghanistan, where women's rights remain under attack more than a decade after the US ousted the Taliban government. Kakar was kidnapped in Ghazni province while driving from Kabul to her constituency in the southern province of Kandahar. She is one of 69 female deputies in the 249-seat lower house of parliament. Zholina Faizi, secretary of the Ghazni provincial council, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that Kakar was released Saturday at 5 pm and is doing fine. Faizi said Afghan intelligence officials told her that seven male hard boyz and one woman were freed in exchange for Kakar. The Taliban, however, said in a statement that four women and two children imprisoned by the government were freed. The statement said the women and kiddies were being held merely because they were related to members of the Islamist militia, whose fighters "felt compelled to take action to help the persecuted and oppressed female relatives of its mujahedeen." Faizi could not confirm the Taliban's claims. And other Afghan officials, including Ghazni province Gov. Mousa Khan Akbarzadeh, declined to comment on whether anyone was freed for Kakar's sake. "Yes, she's been released by the effort and mediation of tribal elders and holy mans in Ghazni," Akbarzadeh said. "Her health is fine, and she is now with her family. I hope this kind of bad news never repeats itself in the history of Afghanistan." Abdul Rahim Ayoubi, a member of parliament from Kandahar, said Kakar was in the southern province with her family but expected to go to Kabul in a couple of days. "It's good news for all of us," he said. Posted by: Fred 2013-09-08 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=375426 |