Family freed from Taliban captivity leaves Pakistan for Canada

The American-Canadian family that was freed from Taliban captivity by Pakistan Army boarded a flight to Canada on Friday, Geo News reported citing airport sources.

American Caitlan Coleman, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their three children left for Canada on Pakistan International Airlines flight PK785 via UK, the sources said.

The family, after being released from five-year long captivity, had earlier refused to immediately board a US-bound jet over concerns about the husband’s past links to a former Guantanamo Bay inmate.

Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle were kidnapped during a backpacking trip in Afghanistan in 2012, and had three children while in captivity.

In 2009, Boyle was briefly married to Zaynab Khadr, the sister of Canadian-born Omar Khadr, who spent a decade at Guantanamo.

Pakistan Army announced on Thursday the hostages had been "recovered... from terrorist custody through an intelligence-based operation by Pakistani troops." US intelligence services had been tracking the movement of the hostages and informed their Pakistani partners when the hostages were moved across the Pak-Afghan border into Kurram Agency on October 11, 2017.