Eight Western aid workers held for three months by the Taliban for preaching Christianity were celebrating their freedom yesterday after anti-Taliban fighters released them from prison in Afghanistan and US military helicopters flew them to Pakistan.
The two Americans, two Australians and four Germans, employees of the German charity Shelter Now International, were picked up by three US Special Forces helicopters overnight from a field south of the Afghan capital Kabul. They were flown to the Chaklala air base near Islamabad where they were met by diplomats from their respective embassies.
Their imprisonment began on August 3rd when they were arrested on charges of seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Under the Taliban's hard-line brand of Islamic law, the eight aid workers, who were detained along with 16 Afghan colleagues, could have faced the death penalty if convicted of seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Mr Mohammed Nazir (42) speaking in Kabul said he and his 15 colleagues broke out of the jail late on Monday as the Taliban fled the capital under pressure from the advancing forces of the opposition Northern Alliance. They spent the night sleeping in the desert or in mosques before being reunited with their families the next day.
German-national Mr Georg Taubmann, one of the freed aid workers, said he and his colleagues were taken to Ghazni by the Taliban as it withdrew from Kabul. No sooner had they arrived then there was an anti-Taliban uprising in Ghazni by local mujahideen commanders who stormed the prison, he said. "They broke into the prison and just opened the doors," Mr Taubmann said. "We were actually afraid that the Taliban were coming and taking us to Kandahar."