Aug 29: Taliban fundamentalist today released 3 more South Korean women captive after releasing 2 hostages earlier from a group of 19 South Korean’s abducted on July 19. The Talibanis were asking to release their captive companions in the exchange of South Korean prisoners. This release of 3 hostages is considering as a major diplomatic achievement for South Korean government.
According to Haji Zahir, an acting mediator between the Taliban and South Korea Governemnt, “All releasing captive are in good health and have been released near the edge of central Ghazni”. They were later handled to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Talibanis kidnapped 23 South Koreans working for Christian Charity on July 19, 2007 in which they killed two of them for threatening the Afghani government and had later released two detainees.
Till then South Korean government and Afghan administration were trying to sort out the problem by direct interactive to the kidnappers. But Haji Zahir, a tribal elder became the mediator of both to save the rest captive. According to him, “he and two other elders have travelled to meet the Talibanies and bring the women by car to Ghazni”.
According to South Korean official sources, this release comes a day after a deal finalised between the Talibanis and South Korean Government. South Korea has agreed to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year gradually and all the missionary work going in the country by their citizens would be stopped and none would be allowed to go to Afghanistan.
On the other hand, Mullah Basheer, a Taliban representative had earlier announced to release all 19 hostages in the coming week. “One group will be released today, I cannot tell you the number, but a group will be released, while others will also be released step by step, but they will be released for sure. One of our main demands has not been accepted, but our other demands were welcomed. All of the Koreans will be released in less than a week”, said Basheer.
It is assuming that the Talibanies have dropped their earlier demand of releasing their companions in exchange for the hostages' freedom. All hostages may be kept in the several different locations in Ghazni province.
As much as 200 South Korean non-combat personnel had been deployed to help the reconstruction efforts in the country and the Korean government had decided to not to deploy more than that before the kidnapping incident. But now all the personnel would be call back home after this incident, Seoul has decided.
It is known that 23 South Koreans were kidnapped on their travel route of the Kandahar- Kabul highway on July 19, 2007. Since then there have been several round of talks between Taliban militants and Afghanistan government representative. However, Taliban militants were later agreed to have direct talks with a South Korean delegation. As a result two female hostages were released on Aug 13. The recent development has certainly brought happy moments for the families of all hostages.
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