Dubai, Sep 19 : The Taliban released on Friday a British couple held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges, an official said, likely part of a wider effort to get their government recognised internationally years after taking power.
The case of Peter and Barbie Reynolds, aged 80 and 75, underlined the concerns of the West over the actions of the Taliban since they overthrew the country’s US-backed government in a 2021 lightning offensive.
The Reynolds had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and run an education and training organisation in the country’s central province of Bamiyan, choosing to remain in the country after the Taliban seized power.
Qatar, an energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula that mediated talks between the US and the Taliban before the American withdrawal, helped in releasing the Reynolds. The couple left Afghanistan on Friday, a diplomat said. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations in the case.
“God is good, as they say in Afghanistan,” Barbie Reynolds said after she arrived at Kabul International Airport to fly out of the country.
The Reynolds’ family members in the United Kingdom repeatedly called for the couple’s release, saying they were being mistreated and held on undisclosed charges. While the Taliban rejected the abuse allegations, they have never explained what prompted their detention.
A spokesperson at the Taliban government’s Foreign Ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said the couple “violated Afghan law” and were released from prison Friday after a court hearing, according to a statement he posted on X. His statement did not say what law the couple were alleged to have broken.
Balkhi thanked Qatar for its “sincere efforts and mediation” regarding the couple who, he said, were handed over to Richard Lindsay, the UK’s special envoy for Afghanistan.
UK Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer expressed his relief that the couple’s ordeal had ended. The UK had worked intensively since their detention and supported the family throughout, Falconer said.
“The government’s ability to help those in need of consular support in Afghanistan is extremely limited. Our travel advice is clear that individuals should not travel to Afghanistan,” he added.
In July, United Nations human rights experts warned the couple’s physical and mental health was deteriorating rapidly and that they were at risk of irreparable harm or even death.
Earlier this month, the Taliban said they had reached an agreement with US envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalise relations. The meeting came after the Taliban in March released US citizen George Glezmann, who was abducted while travelling through Afghanistan as a tourist.
It remains unclear what, if anything, the Taliban had been promised to see the Reynolds released. However, Afghanistan’s list of needs is long.
The Western aid money that flowed into it after the 2001 US-led invasion has been severely cut as needs continue to mount, particularly after a magnitude 6 quake on August 31. Its economy remains on shaky ground.
But Western nations remain hesitant to provide money to the Taliban government, citing their restrictions on women and clamping down on expression and personal freedoms.
Afghanistan also remains a focus of US President Donald Trump for another reason. On Thursday, while visiting the UK, Trump suggested that he is working to reestablish a US presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Zakir Jalaly, an official at the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed the idea. (AP)
