‘I strangled the Italian aid worker’, claims kidnapper

A MAN claiming to have kidnapped an Italian aid worker in Afghanistan told Reuters yesterday he had killed her, but a government spokesperson said she was still alive.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, who works for the CARE International aid agency, was snatched on Monday when four gunmen stopped her vehicle on a central Kabul street and bundled her into a white Toyota car.

Timoor Shah, who has claimed in several conversations with media to be holding Mr Cantoni, said he had killed her after President Hamid Karzai’s government refused to accept his demands.

“We strangled her with a rope at nine o’clock last night,” said Mr Shah, who was contacted on Ms Cantoni’s mobile phone number. “I will not give her body to anyone,” he said.

Mr Karzai’s spokesperson, Jawed Ludin, dismissed the man’s claim and said Ms Cantoni was still alive.

Ms Cantoni’s abduction raised fresh fears among Kabul’s 2,000-strong foreign community of Iraq-style kidnappings by anti-government insurgents, but officials said the kidnapper was Mr Shah, the leader of a criminal gang.

In talks to media he listed different demands including the banning of a radio program deemed “vulgar,” compensation for opium farmers who have to abandon their crop, and more Islamic education.

Sources close to the negotiations later said he was no longer insisting on those demands. But officials did not reveal what he was demanding.

“I killed her because the government didn’t listen or accept my demands,” Mr Shah said. “The matter is over.”

Mr Ludin dismissed the claim. “He is lying. He makes such comments in order to put pressure on the government,” he said. “I have assurances from the interior minister that she is alive. The talks are going on.”

In his talks to media, Mr Shah gave two ultimatums, one on Wednesday evening and one on Thursday morning but government officials said Mr Shah had told them he had not set any deadline.