A militant Afghan group holding three foreign U.N. workers has given negotiators a list of Taliban prisoners and said it will kill the hostages unless they -- and all Afghans jailed in Guantanamo Bay -- are freed. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said the Jaish-e-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) had handed over the names of at least 25 Taliban followers jailed in Afghanistan whose release it was demanding. "The United Nations has asked for the list of prisoners and we have given a list of at least 25 people inside Afghanistan," AIP quoted the group's leader Mullah Sayed Mohammad Akbar Agha as saying.| And why was the UN asking for a list? |
"But we can't give a list for the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. There are many Afghan prisoners there. None All of them should be released," Agha said.The U.N. workers -- Filipino Angelito Nayan, Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland and Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo -- were snatched from a busy Kabul street Thursday, sparking fears that Afghan militants were copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq. The Pakistan-based AIP did not say if it had the list. Mullah Agha earlier told Reuters that Wednesday's noon (0730 GMT) deadline for the prisoner release remained in place for now but could be extended if negotiations progressed. He said negotiations with a "tajir" -- an influential trader with wide contacts -- were continuing. |