The Taliban has informed the BBC it is going to endeavour to liberate two British nationals who’ve been arrested and held in Afghanistan “once conceivable”.
Peter Reynolds, 79, and his spouse Barbie, 75, have been arrested on 1 February whilst returning to their house within the nation’s Bamiyan province.
An American nationwide and an Afghan have been additionally arrested along the couple, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Inner Affairs stated.
The United Kingdom International Administrative center stated on Monday it used to be supporting their circle of relatives.
In a remark, Taliban reputable Abdul Mateen Qani stated: “A sequence of concerns is being taken into consideration, and after analysis, we can endeavour to liberate them once conceivable.”
All 3 international nationals had Afghan passports and nationwide ID playing cards, he added.
The cause of Mr and Mrs Reynolds’s arrest has no longer been showed.
The couple have been operating coaching tasks in Afghanistan for 18 years, together with person who concerned coaching moms and kids.
Their paintings had it sounds as if been authorized via the native government, in spite of the Taliban banning training for ladies over the age of 12 and no longer permitting girls to paintings.
The pair married in Kabul in 1970. They remained in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s go back to energy in August 2021, which noticed maximum westerners go away the rustic.
Their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, informed the BBC she had no longer heard from her folks in additional than two weeks.
That they had communicated via textual content after the pair have been to begin with arrested, however touch stopped after 3 days.
Ms Entwistle and her siblings wrote to the Taliban to plead for his or her folks’ liberate.
“We recognise that there were cases the place exchanges were advisable to your govt and western international locations,” they wrote.
“Alternatively, our folks have persistently expressed their dedication to Afghanistan, declaring that they might relatively sacrifice their lives than turn into a part of ransom negotiations or be traded.”
On Monday, Ms Entwistle stated they’d sought after to present the Taliban a chance “to provide an explanation for their causes,” as a result of Mr and Mr Reynolds had “at all times sought to honour” the gang.
However she stated they may not wait, telling Occasions Radio: “We at the moment are urgently calling at the British consulate to do the whole lot of their energy to get us solutions and to place as a lot power as they are able to at the Taliban for his or her liberate”.
The United Kingdom close its embassy in Kabul and withdrew its diplomats from the rustic after the Taliban returned to energy.
The International Administrative center says reinforce for British nationals in Afghanistan is due to this fact “critically restricted” and advises in opposition to all trip to the rustic.
Further reporting via Mahfouz Zubaide.
