US Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday evening telephoned Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and thanked the government of Pakistan, the country’s army and intelligence agencies for safe recovery of a US-Canadian couple, ARY News reported.
A US national Caitlin Coleman, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their three children were recovered from terrrorists’ custody earlier this week.
The US Vice President reaffirmed the importance of bilateral relations and said that the US would like to further build this relationship for peace and prosperity of the region.
Reaffirming Pakistan’s resolve to eliminate terrorism from its soil, the Prime Minister assured the US Vice President that Pakistan would respond to any actionable intelligence shared by the US side.
The two leaders agreed to maintain high level engagements to strengthen cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
Pence also accepted the invitation of the Prime Minister to visit Pakistan in the near future.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also called to convey US government’s gratitude for the safe recovery of the hostages.
On October 12, Pakistan Army and ISI recovered five Western hostages including a US National woman, his Canadian husband and their three children from terrorist custody through an intelligence based operation.
They were captured by Terrorists from Afghanistan during 2012 and kept as hostages there. US intelligence agencies had been tracking them and shared their shifting across to Pakistan on 11 Oct 2017 through Kurram Agency border.
The operation by Pakistani forces, based on actionable intelligence from US authorities was successful; all hostages were recovered safe and sound and are being repatriated to the country of their origin.
