Flanigan kidnappers 'negotiating with Afghan govt'

A militant group threatening to kill three United Nations hostages including a Northern Irish woman Annetta Flanigan said today it was talking to the Afghan government about its demand to free Taliban prisoners.

A week after the abduction of Ms Flanigan, Filipino Angelito Nayan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo, the militants set no new deadline for an agreement on their conditions, which also include a UN withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Syed Khaled, a spokesman for Jaish-al Muslimeen, told The Associated Press that UN and Afghan officials had contacted them last night and asked for more time for talks.

“The government said they would think about releasing those Taliban held in Afghan prisons and discuss the prisoners held by the Americans,” Khaled said in a satellite telephone call.

An obscure spin-off of Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime, Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings and on Sunday released a video of the frightened hostages in a sinister echo of the insurgency in Iraq.

Afghan officials suspect that warlords or criminal gangs were involved in the abduction and have launched a search operation in the capital and surrounding countryside.

Authorities say they are hopeful that the three will eventually be released unharmed. But there has been no confirmation of any contact with the kidnappers and officials have appealed to ordinary Afghans to provide information.

UN officials are refusing to discuss the crisis for fear it could harm the effort to free the hostages.

The militants have backed off a series of deadlines to kill the three hostages, claiming negotiations are underway.

They have also suggested that Nayan, a Philippine diplomat, might be spared because his country has no troops in Afghanistan.

All three hostages were in Afghanistan to help manage its October 9 presidential election, whose result was officially confirmed yesterday.

The hostage-taking cast a shadow over the ceremony as US-backed interim leader Hamid Karzai was officially declared Afghanistan’s first popularly-elected president.

“It has saddened all the electoral staff and the nation of Afghanistan,” electoral board chairman Zakim Shah said, appealing for the swift release of the victims “to put an end to this suffering during what should be a time of national celebration”.