Taliban will swap kidnapped UK aid worker for arrested Pak scientist Aafia Siddique

KABUL - Militants claiming to have kidnapped a British aid worker are demanding an exchange for the Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui.

A local Taliban commander named Mohammad Osman said he had kidnapped the woman and her Afghan colleagues in Kunar province on Sunday.

According to The Telegraph, Osman told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), based in Peshawar in northeastern Pakistan: “We are lucky that we abducted this British woman soon after the ruthless ruling by an American court on Aafia Siddiqui We will demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui in exchange for her.”

Siddiqui, a 38-year-old neuroscientist, was jailed last week by a New York court for 86 years for the attempted murder of US agents and soldiers who were trying to interrogate her in Afghanistan.

British government policy is never to pay ransoms to kidnappers, but London and Washington are in contact over the report.

The AIP frequently carries interviews and statements from senior insurgent figures and is considered to have close links to the Taliban. (ANI)