American citizen Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle along with their three children were rescued from the Haqqani network after an operation by Pakistani forces. (AP)
Days after an American-Canadian family was rescued from the captivity of the Haqqani terror network, it has now emerged that Pakistani forces acted promptly out of fear of another humiliation by the Donald Trump administration. American citizen Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle along with their three children were rescued from the Haqqani network after an operation by Pakistani forces based on intelligence from the US authorities.
The couple was kidnapped in 2012 in Afghanistan while they were on a backpacking trip. Their three children were born while the duo was in captivity. The New York Times reported today that the couple were spotted by a CIA drone. Following this, Trump administration had delivered a very stern message to Pakistan for rescuing the family.
Officials told NYT that US Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale had delivered an “urgent” message to the Pakistani government, saying, “resolve this, or the United States will.”
According to the NYT report, Pakistan had no choice but to act on the US diktat. Islamabad was wary of the humiliation if the US had raided deep inside Pakistani territory to rescue the hostages. Pakistan had faced global humiliation when the Navy SEAL commandoes of the US conducted an operation to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011 within Pakistan, without informing authorities in Islamabad.
NYT also said that Pakistan’s inaction in rescuing the family would have “underscored” Trump’s open declaration that Pakistan is a terror safe haven.
Pakistani officials told NYT that they acted within hours with the assistance of American intelligence and rescued the family in a “dramatic confrontation” with the terrorists.
Coleman was kidnapped when she was seven months pregnant and she gave births four times in captivity.
Trump administration didn’t publicly acknowledge that they had put pressure on Pakistan for conducting the operation.
