Couple kidnapped by Taliban beg for lives in latest video clip

KABUL: An American-Canadian couple kidnapped by the Taliban in 2012 stated in a latest video clip that surfaced, that their captors would execute them if the Afghanistan government did not change its policies with regard to the Taliban prisoners. 

While on a backtracking trip across Afghanistan in 2012, American Joshua Boyle and his Canadian wife Caitlan Coleman were kidnapped by the Taliban and held hostage ever since. A video clip of the two shared SITE Intelligence group showed the couple beg for their lives, urging the Afghanistan government to stop execution of Taliban prisoners. 

"They will execute us, women and children included, if the policies of the Afghan government are not overturned either by the Afghan government or by Canada somehow, or United States," said Joshua, in the video. "Our captors are terrified at the thought of their own mortality approaching and are saying that they will take reprisals on our family," he further added in the video clip. 

In the video, Boyle can be seen sporting an unkempt beard while he and his wife, Caitlan, who appears to be dressed in black clothing that also covers her face. Both slowly read out the words, possibly from a script not featured in the camera. 

This is not the first time that the couple has appeared in a video. In 2013, they had appeared in a video in which the couple begged the United States government to have them released from captivity. Caitlin had been with child in 2012 when the couple had been kidnapped. In November, her parents had received a letter in which she had told them how she had given birth to her second child, in captivity. 

"The Government of Canada will not comment or release any information which may compromise or risk endangering the safety of Canadian citizens abroad," read an email from the Global Affairs Spokesman Michael O’Shaughnessy.  

In May, the Afghan government had hanged six Taliban prisoners.