[Dawn] Afghan Taliban have released a Greek man safe and well seven months after he was kidnapped in northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said Thursday."He is with us. He is safe. It was a difficult task but our intelligence agencies did this job," Rahmatullah Wazir, the top administrative official in Pakistan's Chitral valley, told AFP by telephone.
Local elders from Chitral had been negotiating with those holding Athanassios Lerounis in the neighbouring Afghan province Nuristan, the official said.
He was kidnapped on September 7 while working for an aid group among the ethnic Kalash community in the mountains of Chitral.
"He was with Afghan Taliban in the Afghan province of Nuristan. The negotiations succeeded. He reached Chitral late last night," Wazir said.
"He's in a good health."
The group had demanded a ransom and that Pakistan release three detained Afghan Taliban leaders, but Wazir said none of their demands had been met and that Lerounis had been released unconditionally.
Mohammad Jafer, a senior police official in Chitral, confirmed the recovery following negotiations for his safe release.
There was no immediate comment from the Greek embassy in Islamabad.
Greece's Athens News Agency reported last October that negotiations were underway for Lerounis's release after his Taliban-affiliated kidnappers demanded a ransom and the release of three Taliban leaders held in Pakistan.
Some Kalash are fair with light-coloured eyes, leading to academic speculation that they might be descended from an ancient Middle Eastern population or even from soldiers of Alexander the Great's army which conquered the area in the fourth century BC.