With the latest deadline set by the Taleban expiring a couple of hours ago, an operation to rescue 21 South Korean hostages has begun.
Kabul, Aug.1 : With the latest deadline set by the Taleban expiring a couple of hours ago, an operation to rescue 21 South Korean hostages has begun.
Khowja Seddiqi, the district chief of Ghazni's Qarabagh district, was quoted by a foreign news agency as saying that the operation has begun to free kidnapped Korean Christian volunteers who have been in captivity for nearly a fortnight.
Meanwhile, according to the BBC, the United States has been approached by relatives of the hostages to rescue them.
They visited the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday, and were told that their plea would be passed to Washington.
The Taleban has killed two of the 23 hostages, and threatened to shoot more if their demand of a prisoner release is not met. South Korean officials have reportedly been holding talks with the Taleban to try to secure the hostages' release.
The 23 Korean Christian aid workers - 18 of them women - were seized on July 19 as they were travelling on a bus down the Kabul-Kandahar Highway.
The aid workers' leader, Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was the first to be shot dead by the militants. His death was reported over the weekend.
On Tuesday, a second hostage - 29-year-old Shim Sung-min, a former IT worker, was killed.
The family members who visited the US embassy in Seoul said they were determined to do all they could to save their loved ones.
While the South Korean government has not publicly asked Washington for help, local groups, political parties and relatives of the hostages have all called for US involvement.
The Seoul government has also appealed for "flexibility" in negotiations with the Taleban - which analysts say is effectively a request for the US to make an exception to its policy of refusing to acquiesce to the group's demands.
The international community, and the US in particular, is seen to have much greater leverage.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has already refused to swap prisoners for hostages, after he was criticised for releasing five Taleban members from jail in March in exchange for an Italian reporter.
As the hostage saga continues, anti-US sentiment in South Korea is rising, with local people angry that Washington has not stepped in to help.
Outrage over the killing has also sparked increasing calls for South Korea to pull out its 200 troops in Afghanistan, or even to send these troops to rescue the remaining captives. (ANI with inputs)
ANI