Militants to decide fate of Afghan three today
They said they would decide today whether to kill the trio.
The group also claimed hostage Annetta Flanigan, from Co Armagh, was “seriously ill” because of the strain of her captivity, and that all three were sickened by a diet of little more than biscuits. “My friends have told me she is very frightened. She can’t speak smoothly,” Akbar Agha, the group’s leader, said in a satellite phonecall.
“The Afghan government will be responsible if anything happens to her.”
A purported commander for Jaish-al Muslimeen, a shadowy Taliban splinter group, said UN and Afghan officials contacted them by phone yesterday but were “not ready for negotiations.”
“We have decided that we won’t negotiate any more either, because they are not making a serious effort to get the hostages released,” a man identifying himself as Sadir Momin said in a satellite telephone call.
“Tomorrow we will hold another shura up until 2pm (0930 GMT). Then we will decide whether to kill them or allow more time,” Momin said.
Afghan and UN officials were either unavailable or declined to comment.
Neither have confirmed any contact with the kidnappers.
Armed men abducted Ms Flanigan, a Filipino woman Angelito Nayan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo a week ago in the Afghan capital.
It was the first kidnapping of foreigners in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and sparked concern that militants are copying the tactics of their Iraqi counterparts.
The group released a video of the hostages on Sunday to back its claim of responsibility and has demanded the withdrawal of British troops as well as the UN from Afghanistan in return for their lives.
All three hostages were helping manage last month’s Afghan presidential election, whose result was officially confirmed on Wednesday. The hostage- taking cast a shadow over the ceremony as interim leader Hamid Karzai was declared Afghanistan’s first popularly-elected president.
