New video of kidnapped Czech women appears in Pakistan
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Two young Czech women kidnapped in southwest Pakistan in March said in a new video released by the Czech government on Wednesday they feared they would soon be killed.
The Czech embassy in Islamabad received the footage, which shows Antonie Chrastecka, 25, and Hana Humpalova, 24, who were seized while heading for India by microbus through the province of Baluchistan, neighbouring Afghanistan.
In the video, released by the girls' families through the Czech Foreign Ministry, one of the women said she was in poor health.
"My health condition is very unstable mainly because of the food and water and it's getting worse," Humpalova said in English, in a three-minute video she said was recorded on August 23.
"I don't know how much time I have left because these guys take their final action from which you may not hear from me again," she said adding she did not know the fate of her friend.
In the second part of the video, Chrastecka appears and calls on the Czech government for help.
"I am asking the Czech government to help me go home soon," Chrastecka said. "Please make the biggest pressure to the Pakistani government to cooperate with my kidnappers. Please give them what they want."
Czech President Milos Zeman said this month that negotiations to secure the release of the pair were under way. The ministry also released a joint video by the mothers of the two women, in which they said they believed their daughters were being taken care of well.
A previous video given to a Czech TV station in June showed the two demanding the release of Pakistani national Aafia Siddiqui.
Siddiqui, a neuroscientist, was given an 86-year sentence by a U.S. court in 2010 for shooting at FBI agents and soldiers in Afghanistan.
Source http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINDEE99T0BF20131030
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