Recovery of kidnapped North American family

Not only does the safe recovery of a North American family by Pakistan army from the clutches of terrorists in Kohat present one of the best intelligence-sharing examples between Pakistan security forces and the US, it also provides an ideal opportunity to an American movie-story writer to derive from the whole episode a creative script for a mega Hollywood blockbuster. Pakistan Army's media arm, ISPR, has claimed that the country's security forces, with the support of US intelligence, have freed an American woman, her Canadian husband and their three children from terrorists' captivity.
American national Caitlan Coleman, 31, and her husband Joshua Boyle, 33, had been held in captivity by terrorists since 2012. They were kept inside Afghanistan and the couple had been kidnapped while travelling in Afghanistan as tourists. Arguably, the most profound aspect of this kidnapping story is the fact that the woman was pregnant while kidnapped and gave birth to three children during captivity, which suggests that the woman in particular was treated in a fairly decent manner. It contributes to the widely-held perception that the Afghan Taliban have, by and large, in their 15-year-old struggle against the presence of foreign troops in their country treated the women of "enemies" in accordance with their religious beliefs and traditional customs. That women in the Afghan Taliban captivity are always treated with a lot of respect is a fact that many Western scholars on Afghanistan have observed over a period of time. For example, Associated Press' Kathy Gannon, one of the longest-serving foreign journalists on Afghanistan-Pakistan, could perhaps vouchsafe a response to this newspaper in this regard.
It has been reported that the security officials, who requested not to be named, told media that one of the kidnappers had been taken into custody while his two accomplices fled after an exchange of fire. Their remarks that the vehicle carrying the hostages was intercepted near Kohat "amid surveillance of drones" however, could give birth to some wild speculations about the current status of US-Pakistan relationship.
The US intelligence agencies had been tracking them and shared their shifting across to Pakistan on October 11-a day before this operation was carried out-through the Kurram Agency border. Here, not only has ISPR preferred not to disclose the kidnappers' identity, it has also not responded to reports, however unconfirmed, that the kidnappers belonged to the Haqqani Network, the North American family was recovered from a settled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area, not from Kurram Agency, and buzzing unmanned aerial vehicles had been seen in the skies over Fata and KP for the past 10 days. The local people have been quoted as saying that objects were also flying over Hangu district and Kurram and North Waziristan agencies. Drones appeared in the skies over Kohat on Wednesday, causing panic among residents and provoking Pakistan Air Force fighter planes and gunship helicopters to intercept the "foreign objects".
Be that as it may, the safe recovery of the North American family has perhaps added a new chapter to the history of US-Pakistan bilateral relationship that has received a serious setback following the unveiling of Trump administration's new policy on Afghanistan and South Asia. This development will certainly augur well for the prospects of allaying mutual doubts and suspicions, allowing both the countries not to destroy the gains that they have made in the war on terror so far. It is therefore heartening to note that President Trump has praised Pakistan for helping secure the release of the North American family, and hoped that this cooperation will continue in future joint terrorism operations as well. Therefore, it is about time the US President revisited his country's strategy in relation to Afghanistan and South Asia that seeks to provide unwarranted greater space to India in a war-torn country.