Afghanistan’s Taliban claimed responsibility for taking 27 passengers hostage in the south of the country Tuesday in a latest incident of mass kidnapping.
The early morning abductions happened in restive Helmand province, where Afghan security forces have been battling the insurgents to reverse recent battlefield losses.
Heavily armed men stopped some 14 vehicles, including buses near the district of Gereshk and abducted dozens of passengers, said Abdul Ghafoor Tokhi, the head of the provincial transportation department.
He told VOA that a majority of the abductees were later freed and allowed to resume their journey on the main highway, which links southern Kandahar and western Herat provinces. Tokhi said the exact number of hostages and their ethnicity was still not known.
Taliban claim responsibility
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility, saying passengers with no links to government institutions or Afghan security forces were freed after initial investigation. He added, 27 hostages suspected of links to the Kabul regime were still in Taliban custody for further investigation.
“But if it is established that these men participated in [anti-Taliban] security operations by [foreign] invading forces or their enslaved [Kabul] regime they will be held accountable for their actions,” the spokesman warned.
This is the third mass kidnapping this month by the Taliban. The insurgents had abducted some 200 passengers on a highway in the northern Kunduz province in early June. While some are still with the Taliban, more than a dozen hostages were executed, prompting widespread condemnation locally and internationally.
In another incident in early June the Taliban abducted 17 passengers in northern Afghanistan. Those passengers were later released when local tribal elders intervened.
Concerns in Kabul
Police in Kabul are reported to have recently told foreigners living outside protected compounds to travel with guards, saying “the kidnapping and criminal threat is very serious” in the capital city.
The warning came after the kidnapping of an Indian aid worker earlier this month. Judith D’Souza, 40, was abducted on June 9 from a central Kabul area. Her whereabouts are still unknown and there have been no claims of responsibility.
On Monday, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a minibus in the Afghan capital carrying mostly Nepalese nationals. The explosion killed 14 of them while five others were wounded. The victims were part of the security staff at the Canadian Embassy in Kabul.
via Voice of America http://ift.tt/28KfMr0
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