Post via Islamic Emirate

An American citizen, Paul Overby, went missing three years ago over the border in Waziristan area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

In a message send to Mashal Radio, the wife of the missing individual claimed that her husband was being held by the Mujahideen of Haqqani Sahib.

We reject this assertion. Firstly, we do not have a separate branch, organ or as the enemy describes a network under the name of Haqqani in the working framework of Islamic Emirate. The word, decisions and actions of the Emirate are one and the son of the Haqqani Sahib, the esteemed Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the deputy of the Leader of Islamic Emirate.

Second, our Mujahideen do not have a hand in the kidnapping of the missing US citizen because they do not conduct any activities in Waziristan.

If the US citizen Paul Overby were with us, we would have made it public and stated our demands just as we have shared videos of other US citizens in our detention with the media and made clear our demands.

We have previously assured the family of this individual – through private channels – that we are not holding captive their family member. We once again wish to openly declare that the US citizen Paul Overby has not been captured by our Mujahideen, neither is he in our captivity, nor are we aware of his capture and detention.

We assure the family of this missing person that if their family member was with us, we would definitely have kept them informed because detaining a person and keeping him with us in this dangerous security environment would be of no benefit for us.

All individuals held captive by us are granted all their humanitarian rights, and their health, wellbeing and contact with families are given due attention.

End

Spokesman of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Zabihullah Mujahid

01/06/1438 Hijri Lunar

10/12/1395 Hijri Solar                    28/02/2017 Gregorian

Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad.  She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.