The arrest of a British couple in Afghanistan was a “clear example of the Taliban’s alarming lawlessness”, a former US ambassador to the war-ravaged country has said.
Peter and Barbie Reynolds, a couple in their 70s running Rebuild – an education and training programme for girls and women – were arrested by the Taliban as they travelled back to their home in central Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province on 1 February.
Their children have confirmed they lost touch with their parents, who have been living inside Afghanistan for the past 18 years and stayed back in the country after the Taliban took control in August 2021. They also got married in Kabul in the 1970s.
The couple was arrested earlier this month alongside an American friend Faye Hall who had rented a plane to travel with them, Rebuild’s employees said. A translator working with them has also been arrested.
The Taliban authorities told the group that their flight “did not co-ordinate with the local government” and are now inside a prison facility in Kabul.
Former diplomats and experts monitoring the situation warned that the Taliban holding Mr Peter and Ms Barbie is a move to put pressure on the UK.
Ryan Clark Crocker, former US ambassador to Afghanistan, told The Independent that the arrest of the couple was a “clear example of the Taliban’s alarming lawlessness and a sign to the international community that anyone can be next”.
“The de facto authorities have been in the business of taking hostages and this is a continuation of that business. There have been hostages before and there will be hostages even after this,” Mr Crocker, who also serves as the member of the Afghanistan War Commission, said.
The Afghanistan War Commission is an independent body to review US decisions pertaining to the war in Afghanistan from June 2001 to August 2021.
“A series of considerations is being taken into account, and after evaluation, we will endeavour to release them as soon as possible,” said Abdul Mateen Qani, the Taliban’s Interior Ministry spokesperson. The three foreign nationals have Afghan passports and national identity cards, the Taliban spokesperson said.
The Taliban official did not remark on the health condition of Mr Peter, 79, and Ms Barbie, 75, as the Rebuild employees have expressed concern over their deteriorating health in the absence of help from the Taliban. Mr Peter has been denied access to his heart medication and his condition was “not good”, a staff member at Rebuild said.
“It is a highly cynical move by a completely appalling misogynist tyrannical government and everything about the Taliban has gotten worse in the last year. The Taliban have a very cynical policy which is to keep some foreign hostages as it were in the bank, you know who knows when you might want to put a bit of pressure on Britain,” said David Loyn, visiting senior research fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College London.
“They’re holding several Americans at the moment. It's very unclear exactly why this couple were taken. They've worked in Afghanistan for a long time. The Taliban is trying to test their ability and leeway to operate in Afghanistan by continuing to harvest the odd foreign to come the way of the Taliban,” he told The Independent.
Mr Peter’s employees have expressed grave concerns over his life.
“It seems that if Peter and Barbie are not released soon, Peter may lose his life because he needs medication, and the Taliban are not allowing him it,” a staff member told the PA news agency, calling the couple “the most honourable people I have ever met in my life”.
