KABUL, Aug 20: Afghan police rescued the German woman, an aid worker, abducted at gunpoint in Kabul after surrounding the house where was being held and forcing her kidnappers to surrender before dawn on Monday, officials said.
The woman was fine and six kidnappers had been arrested, police colonel Ghulam Rasoul, who was part of the rescue operation, said.
“Yes, we successfully rescued her,” he said, adding police had pinpointed the woman to a house in southwest Kabul near where she had been kidnapped Saturday in broad daylight.
“We located the house where she was kept. We surrounded the house and called on the kidnappers to surrender to police. They came out one by one and surrendered and then we freed the hostage. She’s fine,” Rasoul said.
The woman had identified herself as Christina Meier in a video released Sunday by her abductors, who stoked fears of a drawn-out hostage crisis after demanding the release of jailed Afghans for her freedom.
The colonel could not provide details about the kidnappers, saying that an investigation was underway. An intelligence source who wished to remain anonymous said some of them had criminal backgrounds.
Afghanistan’s interior minister and intelligence chief had overseen the successful rescue bid, interior ministry spokesman Zemary Bashary said.
The German foreign ministry in Berlin confirmed the aid worker had been rescued. “She is in the safety of the German embassy,” a ministry spokesperson said.—AFP
