An Afghan
man taken hostage by the Taliban made a dramatic escape by stealing a gun while
his captors were praying and shooting dead seven of them and wounding 18
others, officials said Thursday.
Awal Khan
and a local police officer were kidnapped Wednesday as they were driving in the
eastern province of Paktika, provincial deputy security chief Abdul Rauf Masood
told AFP.
Paktika is a
Taliban stronghold bordering Pakistan.
The officer
was killed and 36-year-old Awal taken to a Taliban compound in Gomal district
where he was held for hours.
During
afternoon prayers, Awal, who Masood said was handcuffed at the time, grabbed a
weapon belonging to one of his captors and opened fire.
“Awal Khan
sprayed bullets on all of them, killing seven and wounding 18 others,”
provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Rahman Ayaz told AFP.
Taliban
spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to AFP that the group had kidnapped the
two men and that Awal had opened fire on the militants, killing three of them.
Awal then
fled in a pickup truck belonging to his kidnappers, Ayaz said.
His brother,
a local police commander, shared details of the incident with authorities.
The Taliban
is often involved in kidnappings of Afghans and foreigners, sometimes holding
people for years for prisoner exchanges.
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