Kidnapped couple plead for freedom in Taliban video
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Xinhua, October 26, 2011
Pakistani Taliban has released two videos of the kidnapped Swiss couple, who have been held hostage for the past four months in North Waziristan tribal region in northwest Pakistan, local TV reported on Wednesday.
David Olivier, 31, and Widmar Daniela, 29, were abducted by unidentified gunmen in the Loralai area of southwestern Balochistan province in July.
They entered Balochistan as tourists but the officials said that they had not informed the authorities of their arrival.
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has released the videos which were shown by Dawn television on Wednesday. Three armed men are standing behind the couple in the video while they are calling for their release.
Dawn TV said that the couple are held hostage by the TTP members in North Waziristan tribal region.
The videos show the couple calling upon the governments of Switzerland, the United States and Pakistan to meet the captors' demands.
The TTP said they would release the couple if the U.S. freed Aafia Siddiqui, a female neuroscientist sentenced in 2010 for attack on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and is currently held in the U.S. prison.
"We call upon the Western world to put pressure on America for the release of Aafia Siddiqui," TTP deputy chief Waliur Rehman said.
"If the U.S. does not agree to her release then our central ' Shura' (council) will take a decision about the Swiss hostages," he added.
One of the hostages said "our lives are at risk" if the demands are not met in one video.
Sources said that the TTP members had delivered the videos to the local journalists in Miranshah, center of North Waziristan.
TTP sources said that the couple was still alive, but Dawn TV reported that the first video was prepared in August and the second in September.
Official sources say that several important Pakistanis are also held hostage by TTP in the tribal region including Ajmal Khan, the vice-chancellor of Islamia College University in Peshawar and the son of former Governor of Punjab province.
Taliban uses kidnapping as a tool to seek release of their leaders and extort ransom, officials say.
