Afghan officials on Wednesday said they had recovered the bullet-riddled body of a South Korean hostage, one of a group of 23 kidnapped in the country by Taliban militants, according to dpa. General Alishah Ahmadzai, police chief of the southern province of Ghazni where the hostages are being held, said police had recovered the body of a South Korean male with around 10 bullet wounds. The dead man was found in Qara Bargh district of Ghazni, close to where the South Korean aid workers were seized last Thursday. The latest development follows conflicting reports on the fate of the 23 hostages. Afghan officials had earlier denied reports carried by South Korean state media that eight of the hostages had been released following the payment of a ransom by Seoul. No hostages have been released, said Mehrajuddin Patan, governor of the southern province of Ghazni where the hostages are being held. Provincial authorities had also earlier dismissed claims by the Taliban that they had shot one hostage in retaliation for the Afghan government's refusal to accede to their demand to release Taliban prisoners. Sources said that a female hostage died of natural causes, but had rejected as "propaganda" Taliban claims of having shot dead a detainee. The hardline Islamic movement had vowed to start killing some of the group as Afghan authorities had not yet responded to their demand to release Taliban prisoners. "We will start killing some of the hostages from now on till 2 pm because the government has not responded to our demand for the release of eight prisoners," purported Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by phone from an undisclosed location. He said the movement had given a list of eight Taliban prisoners whom they wanted released to the mediators, and were willing to release eight of the hostages in exchange, but since there was no word from the authorities, they had decided to start killing them. An Afghan mediator who declined to be named told dpa that a ransom had been paid to the Taliban to prevent them from killing the hostages. The official did not disclose the amount paid. Taliban representatives previously demanded 100,000 dollars from the Korean negotiators to be allowed to talk to their abducted countrymen. Afghan and Taliban officials had earlier expressed confidence that the negotiations were going well and both sides were optimistic that the matter would be settled soon. It was unclear however how the recovery of the body would affect the negotiation process. The Taliban initially demanded the freedom of 23 Taliban prisoners in Afghan government jails in return for releasing the 18 South Korean women and five men.
