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Taliban set free Kakar in prisoner exchange

Taliban set free Kakar in prisoner exchange

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7 Sep 2013 - 20:16
Taliban set free Kakar in prisoner exchange
author avatar
7 Sep 2013 - 20:16

KABUL released a female lawmaker they held hostage three weeks ago in southern Ghazni province as a result of a prisoner exchange, officials and the rebels said on Saturday.

Fariba Ahmadi Kakar, who represents southern Kandahar province in the Wolesi Jirga or lower house, was kidnapped along with her three children on the Kabul-Kandahar highway on August 13 when she was travelling in a car through Ghazni.

The Taliban said they freed Kakar in Ghazni on Saturday. Their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement said the lawmaker had been released in return for four female and two child relatives of Taliban held by the government.

“Today, the Islamic Emirate handed (Kakar) back over to her relatives via a prisoner exchange,” Mujahid said, referring to the name the Taliban used during their 1996-2001 rule in Afghanistan.

A Kakar family member, who declined to be named, also confirmed that the MP had been released.

Kakar is member of the house communications commission. The penal head, Qais Hassan, told Pajhwok Afghan News they received Kakar after she was released by the Taliban in the evening in the Sholgar district. He said she was in good health.

Earlier in the day, Wolesi Jirga members said security organs had failed to secure the release of Kakar.

She was kidnapped on the third day of Eid-ul-Fitr festival from the Nooghi area and her children were freed the next day.

The lower house which returned from a one and a half month recess lashed out at the government for failing to rescue Kakar from her kidnappers.

Her colleague from central Kapisa province, Mirdad Khan Najrabi, said security officials were trying to release the MP.

Another legislator, Syed Husain Alami from northern Balkh, asked the house to create a special commission that should enter talks with security officials and tribal elders and contact the abductors.

Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said he had repeatedly contacted security officials and the President regarding Kakar’s release.

ma/myn

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