A British pensioner held hostage for more than nine weeks by the Taliban has described his torment inside Afghanistan‘s most notorious prison as ‘the nearest thing to hell I can imagine’.
Peter Reynolds, 79, speaking from a payphone inside Pul-e-Charkhi maximum security jail in Kabul, also voiced his fears for his 76-year-old wife Barbie, who is being held in the prison’s women’s quarters.
‘I’ve been joined up with rapists and murderers by handcuffs and ankle cuffs, including a man who killed his wife and three children, shouting away, a demon-possessed man,’ he said.
Mr Reynolds said his circumstances – ‘a cage rather than a cell’ – were ‘VIP conditions’ compared with those in for the women. He said he had lost weight thanks to a single meal a day, usually nan bread and chickpeas with green tea for breakfast.
‘The atmosphere is pretty shocking. I am learning a lot about the underbelly of Afghanistan. The prison guards shout all the time and beat people with a piece of piping. It’s a horrible atmosphere — the nearest thing to hell I can imagine.’
A lawyer working for the European Union mission was allowed to bring him medicine last week after Reynolds ran out of the heart pills and beta blockers, which he needs after a mini-stroke last year.
No charges have been issued, nor any explanation given for why Peter and Barbie were arrested on February 1 with their interpreter, Jaya, and a visiting Chinese-American friend, Faye Hall.
They were detained after flying in a small plane from Kabul to an airstrip near their home in the central province of Bamiyan, known for its giant Buddha statues, which were blown up by the previous Taliban regime.
Peter Reynolds, 79, and wife Barbie Reynolds, 75, are being held by the Talban at Pul-e-Charkhi maximum security jail in Kabul
The couple were detained as they travelled back to their home in the country’s Bamyan province on February 1 of this year
The couple’s visiting Chinese-American friend, Faye Hall, was released from Taliban jail at the end of March after the Trump administration lifted bounties worth $10 million from the heads of senior Taliban figures including Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister
A Taliban soldier attends a rally to celebrate the withdrawal of US forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan on September 01, 2021
Between 2004 and 2016, the US bought the Afghans more than 64,000 machine guns. Above, a Taliban fighter stands guard at a checkpoint in Kabul in 2021
Their arrest was by ordered by a commander linked to the Haqqani network, a faction led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister (pictured)
Sources within the Taliban say the arrests are a bid to increase international pressure on the government and its supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada (pictured)
Hall was released last weekend after the Trump administration lifted bounties worth $10 million from the heads of senior Taliban figures including Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister.
The couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, having fallen in love with the country when they travelled there as students at Bath University. They got married in Afghanistan in 1970 and have two sons and two daughters after a third son died.
Mr Reynolds has pleaded with his family not to pay any ransom and demanded the Taliban apologise for detaining them.
‘No money should be paid in hush money or hostage money, it doesn’t solve anything if millions of dollars are paid,’ he said in calls from prison which were shared with The Sunday Times.
‘This government needs to face up to the fact it has made a mistake, it has done wrong.’
His biggest concern, he said, was his wife, who is being held separately. They both ask every day for permission to meet but so far this has not been granted.
After being told that the American woman who was detained with the couple had been freed, Mr Reynolds’s fears only increased.
In a call with his son Jonathan, he said: ‘Oh no, so Mum’s on her own. Oh my, oh my goodness, and they won’t let me see her, that’s terrible news.’
