Deadline for Afghanistan hostages extended
Militants claiming to hold three UN hostages in Afghanistan, including Annetta Flanigan of Northern Ireland, said tonight they had delayed a decision on their fate.
Earlier, they had threatened to kill them if the UN did not pull out of Afghanistan.
The UN and the Afghan government have until tomorrow night to open “formal” talks with Jaish-al Muslimeen, said Ishaq Manzoor, who claims to be a spokesman for the shadowy Taliban splinter group.
The militant group had said it would decide today whether to kill the hostages or allow more time for negotiations.
But “some respected people intervened and convinced our leaders to give time to the Afghan government and United Nations” to contact the group, Manzoor said from an undisclosed location.
Manzoor did not give further details, and did not say what would happen if Saturday’s deadline was not met.
Earlier today, two senior Afghan officials said security forces were still searching for the hostages, but they had no information about any contact with the kidnappers.
Armed men abducted Mrs Flanigan, Angelito Nayan of the Philippines, and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo a week ago in the Afghan capital, Kabul. All three were helping manage Afghanistan’s presidential election on October 9.
The militant group released a videotape of the hostages last Sunday to back its claim of responsibility.
It has also demanded the release of Taliban prisoners from a US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and others in Afghan jails, as well as the withdrawals of British troops and the UN from Afghanistan in return for the hostages’ lives.
Representatives of the group said yesterday that efforts to negotiate were floundering and that Mrs Flanigan was ”seriously ill” because of the strain of her captivity, and all three were sickened by a diet of little more than cookies.
A purported militant commander, who identified himself as Sadir Momin, said UN and Afghan officials contacted them by telephone on Thursday but were “not ready for negotiations”.
Manzoor said today that the group had been told earlier that the Afghan government would seek talks with it.
“We will again test the sincerity of the Afghan government and will wait. We will judge their seriousness to know whether they honour their promise,” he said.
None of the claims by the group’s representatives, reached by satellite phone, could be verified independently.
The abductions were the first kidnappings of foreigners in Kabul since the Taliban was ousted in 2001 and sparked concern that militants were copying the tactics of their Iraqi counterparts.
But Afghan officials doubt the little-known group could have pulled off the kidnappings without the help of a local militia or criminal gang, and authorities have conducted a number of searches.
UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva has expressed growing concern for the wellbeing of the three captives, and repeated a call for their immediate release.
The militants have backed off a series of deadlines to kill the hostages, claiming negotiations are under way.
They also have suggested that Nayan, a Philippine diplomat, might be spared because his country has no troops in Afghanistan.
