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GHAZNI, Afghanistan - The governor of the Afghan province where Taleban militants took 23 South Koreans hostage accused Pakistani Taleban working with Pakistani intelligence agents of holding them captive.
“In the beginning it was the local Taleban, but after a few days, Pakistani Taleban and ISI officers disguised as Taleban arrived in the region and they took control of the situation,” Ghazni Governor Merajuddin Pattan told Reuters in an interview on Saturday.
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Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment on PattanÂ’s accusation.
Pattan said that during one telephone conversation, he had heard one of the kidnappers translating from Pashto, the language used by ethnic Pashtun Taleban, to Urdu, PakistanÂ’s national language. He also noted that the kidnappers had stopped setting deadlines since South Korean presidential envoy Baek Jong-chun travelled to Islamabad on Thursday to ask PakistanÂ’s government and Islamist political leaders such as Fazal-ur-Rehman to use their influence to obtain the hostagesÂ’ release.
“I spoke to the Korean diplomats and I told them that if you want this problem to be ended very soon, please put pressure on Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, they will put pressure on the ISI,” Pattan said. |