Police say they found today the bullet-riddled body of one of the 22 remaining South Korean hostages held by suspected Taliban rebels in central Afghanistan. Alishah Ahmadzai, provincial police chief of Ghazni, said the dead body was found in the Orzo area of Andar district.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry identified the victim as Shim Sung-min, reported to be aged 29. The government in Seoul condemned the killing as an "outrageous and inhuman act."
Wahidullah Mujadadi, the chief hostage negotiator for the Afghan government, speaking today with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan by phone from Ghazni, said the talks with the militants will continue.
"We were negotiating with them to extend the deadline," Mujadadi said. "But they did not keep their promise. I feel sorry about that. Our negotiations are still going on in a bid to secure the release of the remaining 21 Korean hostages."
Foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations today called for the immediate release of the hostages. The ministers from 16 Asian nations, attending a regional meeting in Manila, held a silent prayer for the slain hostages.
Second Hostage Slain
The hostage was one of the 23 members of a South Korean Christian church aid group kidnapped on July 19. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusof Ahmadi said today the hostage was killed on July 30.
Ahmadi said if the Taliban does not get a positive reply on its demands about the release of Taliban prisoners by the morning of August 1, then "we will start killing other hostages."
He said the Taliban will first kill the group's men, before beginning to kill the women, and described the July 30 killing as the first phase of consecutive executions. Most of the hostages are reportedly women.
On July 25, Taliban militants killed the leader of the aid workers, 42-year-old Presbyterian pastor Bae Hyung-kyu.
Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
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