By Yoon Won-sup With Emal Pashtunyar in Kabul
Staff Reporter
KABUL _ Taliban said they handed over two South Korean women held captive in Afghanistan for more than three weeks to the Red Cross on Monday night but the Seoul government has yet to confirm the release of the captives.
Nothing has been heard about the release of two sick Korean hostages who were being held by Taliban militants in Afghanistan as a previously mentioned Monday deadline passed.
The hostage situation is surrounded in confusion, with both the Afghan government and the Taliban continuously backtracking on their statements as well as spreading confusion about the hostages.
A source close to the militant commander Mullah Abdullah, who is said to be the lynchpin among the Taliban in Ghazni Province, told The Korea Times that the two sick hostages were set to be freed Sunday afternoon. However, their release was delayed for some reason and put off to Monday.
His statement was later confirmed by Governor of Ghazni Province Merjuddin Patan who said that the two, whose names were not disclosed, would be freed on Monday.
The governor was confident of positive progress in talks between the Taliban and a Korean delegation.
Speaking through his spokesman, Patan said the Afghan government was not a party to the ongoing negotiations between the two sides _ the Taliban and Korean officials _ and was only providing security for the talks.
Almost all media outlets and some Afghan officials were expecting the release of the hostages some time Monday morning here, but neither the Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who had provided misleading information about the hostages release to the media two days ago, nor Abdullah or his spokesman were available for comment.
Taliban commanders and their spokesman Ahmadi are shying away from contacting the media since the first information about the release of the two sick Korean women later proved erroneous.
According to an insider, the Afghan government has asked the two Taliban negotiators holding talks with the Korean delegation not to interact with the media as they had done previously.
At the same time, the provincial government has barred journalists from the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) where the two sides are holding negotiations for the release of all 21 hostages.
With the deadline changing, observers have expressed both optimistic and pessimistic views about the issue. According to some journalists, who have been closely watching the situation, it might be that the Korean side is insisting on the release of all the hostages at once, instead of freeing them in groups of twos and threes.
But there are others who believe that something is going wrong with the talks and this is why the captors are changing their deadline.
Earlier, insiders said that there were differences among the Taliban regarding the release of the hostages. Some are in favor of taking a huge ransom from the Korean side in exchange for the safe release of the hostages, while others are insisting upon the release of prisoners.
Whatever the inside situation might be, tension is once again mounting both in Korea and in the Afghan capital due to the delay.
The militants have already killed two male hostages including Rev. Bae Hyung-kyu, the leader of the Korean Christian group.
The remaining Korean captives are 18 women and three men, mostly in their 20s and 30s who went to Afghanistan July 13 to offer volunteer services.