The remaining 22 South Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan are
alive, a Taliban spokesman said on Friday, and the group will not
set further deadlines as it negotiates with the government on
freeing them.
A government official also said the Christian volunteers, whose
leader was killed two days ago by their Taliban captors, were
alive, adding an Afghan delegation was in talks with the
militants.
"They are alive and fine," Munir Mangal, a deputy interior
minister who also heads an Afghan team trying to secure the freedom
of the hostages, told reporters in Ghazni. Medicines had been sent
for some of the captives who are ill, he added.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the government had
assured the group it would release eight members of the Taliban as
part of an exchange deal for the freedom of a similar number of the
hostages.
(China Daily July 28, 2007)
