The two female Czech citizens were kidnapped in March 2013. The jihadist kidnappers hope to be able to exchange their hostages for Aafia Siddiqui, a female Al Qaeda member sentenced to 86 years in prison by US authorities. Exclusive translation for JihadWatch by Lada, from iDNEZ.cz, October 30 2013. “Kidnappers have released a new video. Hana and Antonie beg the Czech Republic for help”:
The families of the girls kidnapped in Pakistan in March gave two videos to journalists via the Foreign Office. In the first video from the end of August, both Hana and Antonie are talking. They are asking the Czech government for help. The second one was created by their mothers. They are also asking for help.
The footage made by the kidnappers appeared at the Embassy in Islamabad at the end of August. The girls are evidently in a bad state. They are complaining about their situation and begging for help. They are speaking mostly in English.
Hana Humpálová describes how her health has been getting worse. “My health state is not stable, mostly because of the food and water, and it is getting worse,” she says in the video, adding that she doesn’t know how long she can stand that. She even describes how she wants to be buried. From her words it is obvious that the girls were separated and that she knows nothing about her friend. “I am also worried about my friend, who was with me, because I don’t know if she is alive or not,” she says.
After that, Antonie Chrástecká appears in the video, too. She is begging the Czech government for help. The Czech girls came to Pakistan as tourists; they wanted to travel on their own from Iran to India overland. They had consulted with travellers and experts on Asia. “The Goal of their journey was India. They wanted to travel and explore, and also to go to a monastery to meditate,” said the sister of one of the kidnapped girls.
There is very little information about what has happened to the kidnapped girls. In June, a video appeared on the internet in which the girls spoke. “From the medical point of view we are all right, but our lives are in danger,” said the girls in the recording, with detailed close-ups of their passports. However, the video was from April, so it was made approximately one month after the kidnapping.
The video made it clear that the kidnappers want the release of Pakistani neurologist Aafia Siddiqui, who had studied in the USA. After that she went back to Pakistan and, according to the Americans, started to work for al-Qaeda. She was arrested in the USA in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison. The girls were mentioned lately by the Czech President Miloš Zeman. In mid-October, he said that the girls were located between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that the Czech Republic is negotiating for their release.