Shawal: The Pakistani Taliban's No. 2
commander says his group has custody of two kidnapped Swiss
tourists, and that it will free them if the US releases an
imprisoned female Pakistani scientist.
The Swiss pair were abducted in the southwest
Baluchistan province earlier this month.
Taliban commander Waliur Rehman spoke to The
Associated Press yesterday in South Waziristan, a northwest
tribal region.
He says his group ordered the kidnapping in order to
gain freedom for Aafia Siddiqui, a US-educated mother of three
who is serving 86 years in an American jail for trying to kill
US officials in Afghanistan.
Rehman says the Swiss have not been tortured.
But he says that if Siddiqui is not freed, a Taliban
court will decide the fate of the pair.
PTI
First Published: Friday, July 29, 2011, 18:45