Taliban free elderly British couple held in Afghanistan for seven months

The Taliban released on Friday a British couple held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges, likely part of a wider effort to get their government recognized internationally years after taking power.

The case of Peter and Barbie Reynolds, aged 80 and 76, underlined the concerns of the West over the actions of the Taliban since they overthrew the country’s U.S.-backed government in a 2021 lightning offensive.

The Reynolds lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and ran an education and training organization 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 U.S. and the Taliban before the American withdrawal, helped in releasing the Reynolds. The couple left Afghanistan on Friday.

“God is good, as they say in Afghanistan,” Barbie Reynolds said after she arrived at Kabul International Airport to fly out of the country.

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Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state at the Foreign Ministry, thanked the United Kingdom and Afghanistan’s Taliban government “for the fruitful cooperation” in freeing the Reynolds.

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.

The couple’s daughter, Sarah Entwistle said the family was overwhelmed with gratitude and relief to have her parents back after their “incomprehensible detention by the Taliban.”

Speaking in the Qatari capital of Doha ahead of her parents’ arrival there, she also thanked the Qatari and British governments for their support and efforts to secure the couple’s release.

“This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy, and international cooperation,” she told journalists.