A spokesman for the Taliban claims a freed Canadian hostage's allegations that his wife was raped and his daughter killed by their abductors are "western propaganda".
Upon his return to Canada Friday, Joshua Boyle told reporters that during his five years in captivity, held by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network in Afghanistan, his wife's rape was assisted by the captain of the guard and supervised by the commandant of the network.
He said the Haqqani leadership authorized the murder of his daughter in retaliation for his refusal to accept an offer from the kidnappers, but didn't elaborate on the offer.
However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has released a statement saying Coleman had a "natural miscarriage" after an illness.
Mujahid says Boyle and his wife Caitlan Coleman are now "in the hands of the enemy", and the statement Boyle gave was "force fed" to him.
Mujahid also says "from the time the couple were detained until their release" Boyle and Coleman were never separated because the kidnappers "did not want to incite any suspicion."
Boyle told The Canadian Press that conditions during the five-year ordeal changed over time as the family was shuffled among at least three prisons.
He described the first as "remarkably barbaric," the second as more comfortable and the third as a place of violence in which he and his wife were frequently separated and beaten.
