A British couple in their 70s who run education programs in Afghanistan have lost contact with their family after being detained by the Taliban earlier this month, their children say.
The family urged the Taliban to release Peter and Barbie Reynolds. Their four adult children said the couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, remaining after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in 2021.
The couple runs Rebuild, an organization that provides education and training programs for businesses, government agencies, educational organizations and non-governmental organizations.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Sunday Times, which first reported the story, said one project was for mothers and children. The Taliban has severely restricted women’s education and activities.
“They have always been open about their presence and their work, diligently respecting and obeying the laws as they change,” the children said in a letter to the Taliban, shared on Sunday with The Associated Press. “They have chosen Afghanistan as their home, rather than with family in England, and they wish to spend the rest of their lives in Afghanistan.”
“We kindly ask for the release of our father and mother so they can return to their work in teaching, training, and serving Afghanistan, which you have previously supported,” they said.
The children said their parents had asked the British government not to get involved with their case. Britain’s Foreign Office declined to comment.
Rebuild said the husband and wife were taken from their home in the Nayak area of central Bamiyan Province, along with another foreigner and an Afghan.
Rebuild said that the detained couple had been living in the area for more than two years and had Afghan identity cards. It said Taliban officials had previously searched their home and taken the couple to Kabul, before returning them to Bamiyan.
“Then a delegation came from Kabul, along with Bamiyan provincial officials, and took them again to Kabul,” the organization said. “It is now around 17 days and there is still no information about them.”
No one from the Taliban government was available for comment.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russian power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said yesterday. A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said. There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding
RSS