Afghan govt refuses Taliban hostage deal

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said the Afghan government is working to free 21 South Korean hostages but indicated it wouldn’t give in to Taliban demands.

The Taliban have demanded that 23 militant prisoners being held by Afghanistan and at the US base at Bagram be freed in exchange for the Koreans, but the Afghan government has all but ruled that option out.

“We will not do anything that will encourage hostage-taking, that will encourage terrorism. But we will do everything else to have them released,” Karzai said in a CNN interview broadcast yesterday.

Meanwhile, a purported Taliban spokesman said face-to-face talks between the Taliban and South Korean officials over the fate of the 21 hostages will not occur unless the Korean officials travel to Taliban territory, or the UN guarantees the militants' safety elsewhere.

The spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said the militants had talked to the Korean officials “many times” over the phone during the last three days, but there had been “no results”.

“We gave them two choices: either come to Taliban-controlled territory or meet us abroad,” Ahmadi said from an unknown location.