{Canada thanks Qatar for helping secure release of Colin Rutherford, who armed group had accused as being a spy.}<\/p>\n
A Canadian man, held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2010, has been released, Canada’s government has announced. <\/p>\n
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said in a statement on Monday that Colin Rutherford was a tourist in Afghanistan when he was seized by the Taliban in November 2010.<\/p>\n
The Taliban released a video of Rutherford in 2011 and accused the then 26-year-old of being a spy.<\/p>\n
Rutherford insisted he was not a spy and had travelled to Afghanistan to study historical sites and shrines. He said in the video that he is an auditor from Canada and came as a tourist.<\/p>\n
Dion said Canada gave “its heartfelt thanks to the Government of Qatar for its assistance in this matter.”\u200e<\/p>\n
“Canada is very pleased that efforts undertaken to secure the release of Colin Rutherford from captivity have been successful,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We look forward to Mr. Rutherford being able to return to Canada and reunite with his family and loved ones.<\/p>\n
“The Government of Canada will continue to provide Mr. Rutherford with consular assistance and will assist in facilitating his safe return home.\u200e”<\/p>\n
The Canadian Circulations Audit Board said in an email that Rutherford was working for them in Toronto when he went on vacation to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
“This is great news,” Tim Peel, the company’s vice president, said in an email. “We wish him a safe and speedy return and would like to thank all the parties involved in securing his freedom.”<\/p>\n
Source:Al Jazeera:[Afghan Taliban frees Canadian man held since 2010->http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/01\/afghan-taliban-frees-canadian-tourist-held-2010-160112033918399.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Canada thanks Qatar for helping secure release of Colin Rutherford, who armed group had accused as being a spy.} A Canadian man, held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2010, has been released, Canada’s government has announced. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said in a statement on Monday that Colin Rutherford was a tourist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071452,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22476.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22476.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22476.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22476.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22476.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22476.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22476"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22476"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}