Exchanged former Pak army chief's son for al-Zawahiri's daughters, claims Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda terrorist network has claimed that two daughters of its leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and a third woman were released weeks ago in exchange for the son of former Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.

Al Masra, affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), it its 20th edition the magazine posted online in late August featured the claim on its front page, reports the Long War Journal in an article.

Reports suggest it appears that hardly any reporting was made by the Pakistani media that Kayani's son was kidnapped.

While reports suggest that Al-Qaeda had in early August announced that Zawahiri's daughters had been released, some other independent accounts indicated that the global jihadist organization had been trying to secure their release in exchange for the kidnapped sons of Pakistan's elite.

Al Masra highlighted the story on the front page, saying that detaining the "son of the Pakistani Army Commander" led to the release.

It again claimed a series of tweets posted online in mid-August providing the insider details of the story. The author with the twitter handle @muhager_0 which has since been suspended is said to have the blasted the "apostate" Pakistani Army for selling out high-profile al-Qaeda operatives to the Americans in the past.

The list includes Abu Firaj al Libi, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah.

The jihadist is also said to have accused the Pakistan Army of detaining Zawahiri's daughters and the daughter of Sheikh Murjan Salem al Jawhari, as part of its "infidel" war on the group.

The reports said that al-Qaeda claimed it was left with two ways to deal with the situation, one it needed to take "revenge" on the supposed spy and other to detain the son of the Pakistani Army commander in order to exchange him "for the sisters."

The al-Qaeda referred to Kayani as if he is active, although he had retired for nearly three years.

According to al-Qaeda's account, the Pakistani Army initially "refused" the proposed exchange but later agreed to it after lengthy negotiations and Zawahiri's daughters and the other woman, along with their children, were reported to have returned to Egypt.