Chitral (Pakistan): Afghan Taliban have
released a Greek man safe and well seven months after he was
kidnapped in northwest Pakistan near the border with
Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday.
"He is released," Greek ambassador to Islamabad,
Petros Mavroidis, told agency. "We talked with him and he is in
the hands of competent agencies and they will bring him today
or tomorrow to Islamabad to the Greek embassy," he added.
Pakistani officials said Athanassios Lerounis`s
seven-month abduction ordeal ended late yesterday after he was
released in Afghanistan and brought across the border into
Pakistan`s northwestern Chitral valley.
"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 Chitral, told AFP by
telephone.
Elders from Chitral had been negotiating with those
holding 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."
PTI
