Pakistan said on Thursday it had no influence over the Taliban holding 21 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan, stressing it was at war with the Islamist militia and Al Qaeda elements within its own borders, AFP reported. “Pakistan itself is a victim of such incidents,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar said after a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon. Pakistan would like to help, Bakhtyar said, but was at war with Taliban and Al Qaeda elements at home, he said. “Naturally we have no lines of communication with the Taliban,” he said.Meanwhile in Islamabad, a South Korean presidential envoy met Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to plead for help in securing the release of 21 Korean hostages held in Afghanistan. Baek Jong-chun refused to talk to reporters after meeting with Maulana Fazl, and his aides requested a media blackout to avoid further problems for the hostages. But Rehman later told reporters Baek had asked for his help in securing their safe release. “I have already issued an appeal to those who are holding the hostages, and today again I am issuing a second appeal to them, that (they) please release them, they were on a medical mission there, not for fighting,” Rehman said. Earlier, Baek met Sherpao and senior security officials to request their help in ending the crisis, officials said.
Meanwhile, Taliban militants said in Ghazni they were ready to meet a South Korean delegation over the fate of 21 hostages held in Afghanistan. But the embassy in Kabul did not confirm that it would go ahead with such a meeting, which the Afghan government and the Taliban told AFP was already being planned. “A South Korean diplomatic delegation is to meet the Taliban for face-to-face talks to look for ways and solutions to free the South Korean nationals,” Ghazni governor Mirajuddin Pattan told AFP. “This request from the Koreans has been accepted by the Taliban and now we are working on how, where and when this meet could take place,” he said. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP the group had selected a team to meet the South Koreans at a secret location.
Seoul was meanwhile seeking the help of the United States. The propaganda-savvy Taliban pointed to Washington as the main obstacle to the negotiations, with Ahmadi saying: “The Americans do not permit the Kabul administration to free our prisoners.” South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met on the sidelines of a regional security forum in the Philippines. “They agreed that both countries will not use any kind of force,” a South Korean diplomat said.