Videos released of Swiss hostages
Taliban in Pakistan have released two videos of two Swiss tourists who have been held hostage for the past four months.
The videos in English and Swiss-German dialect show the Bernese couple holding a newspaper dated September 15 and calling for Switzerland, the United States and Pakistan to meet the hostage-takers’ demands.
Their captors want the United States to release Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui, jailed for 86 years in 2010 for the attempted murder in Afghanistan of an American who was interrogating her, as well as other Taliban members who are imprisoned in Pakistan.
“Our lives are at risk” if the demands are not met, one of the hostages says in one of the videos.
Taliban sources told the German news agency the couple were still alive, although the videos made public on Tuesday were five weeks old.
The couple were travelling in the Balochistan province of Pakistan when they were captured by armed men. The following week a spokesman for the Taliban said they had been moved to the neighbouring province of South Waziristan on the Afghan border.
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