PESHAWAR: Six Pakis­tanis working for a Polish oil company, who have been in the custody of the Taliban since November 2016, are shown requesting the authorities to make efforts for their release in a video footage released on Tuesday.

The hostages, who appeared in the video released by a Taliban group, were working with Polish oil company Geofizyka Krakow. They had been kidnapped from the Drazinda area of Dera Ismail Khan earlier in November 2016.

The video shows the six hostages sitting on the floor under a white banner fixed to a wall, while two masked gunmen stand beside them. One of the hostages, who identifies himself as Abdul Khaliq, reads a statement saying they are alive and well, so far. He also identifies other hostages as Sher Bahadar, Amjad Shahzad, Muhammad Riaz, Moham­mad Hasan and Mohammad Amin.

“We plead [with the] authorities, our company and families to make efforts for our immediate release,” he said, adding that otherwise, they would meet the same fate of a Polish engineer working for the company, whom Pakistani Taliban had beheaded after kidnapping him in 2008. The video ends with the footage of the Polish engineer being beheaded.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2017