[Praxius]

Update:



CTV.ca | Taliban claims second S. Korean hostage dead

The Taliban has killed another of the 22 South Korean hostages being held in Afghanistan, according to claims from a purported Taliban spokesperson. Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the hardline Islamic militants, told Reuters news service on Monday that the hostage had been killed, bringing the death toll to two. "We shot dead a male captive because the government did not listen to our demands," he said. The Taliban has demanded an equal exchange of Taliban prisoners for the Korean hostages, and had set a deadline of midday Monday. Earlier, Ahmadi said another male, the pastor leading the Christian group, had also been killed. The pastor's body was recovered soon after Ahmadi broke the news to Reuters. "This has been the way the information has been coming out. It was the same situation when the first hostage was killed. We heard it first from Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the purported Taliban spokesperson," said CTV's Denelle Balfour, reporting from Kandahar. "At this point there's no reason to doubt that it's probably true." The group, which was reportedly comprised of 18 women and five men, were travelling on a bus from Kabul to Kandahar on July 19 when it was boarded by militants and the Koreans were taken captive. A number of deadlines have been set by the Taliban, and have passed without bloodshed until now. On Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke out against the kidnapping for the first time, saying the abduction of "foreign guests," especially woman, violated the tenets of Islam. "This will have a shameful effect on the dignity of the Afghan people," Karzai said in a statement from the presidential palace. Pope Benedict also weighed in on Sunday, saying the abduction of 22 South Korean missionaries was a "grave violation of human dignity." He appealed to the perpetrators to return the hostages unharmed and called it a grave violation of human dignity that clashes with every elementary norm of civility and rights and gravely offends divine law." The Taliban has, according to Ahmadi, submitted a list of Taliban prisoners it wants released, and has not yet heard back from government. Korean delegates have travelled to Afghanistan and are working with Afghan officials as well as tribal leaders to try and negotiate the hostages' release. On Saturday one of the female hostages called Reuters, saying the captors often threaten the hostages with death and make them change locations daily. "Now we're only four, we don't know if others have survived or not. Please save us," she says in English.