Two Australian aid workers held by the Taliban in 2001 have described their ordeal 25 years after US special forces freed them, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas, from Perth, were among eight foreign staff of Shelter Now International arrested in Kabul on 3 August 2001, about six weeks before the 9/11 attacks.
The group, which included four Germans and two Americans, was accused of preaching Christianity and faced trial under Sharia law with the possibility of the death penalty. They were held in harsh conditions, separated and interrogated for weeks, and went on hunger strike at one point. Bunch, now 83, said he had made peace with himself and God. Thomas, 76, said the allegations were baseless and that the captors mainly wanted money.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald