"Since Kabul's administration did not listen to our demand and did not free our prisoners, the Taliban shot dead a male Korean hostage,” Qari Yousef Ahmadi, the alleged news representative for the Taliban, told Reuters by phone.
Meanwhile, Khawaja Mohammad Siddiqi, the district governor of Qara Bagh, told CNN the executed hostage had been very ill and could not be moved to hospital.
The victim, who had multiple gunshot wounds, was discovered in the Mushaki area of Qarabagh district in Ghazni province, said police officer Abdul Rahman, according to The Associated Press in a story by Christian Post reporter Eric Young. Korean public broadcaster KBS identified the victim as 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, who led the team of Korean volunteers on a humanitarian aid mission to Afghanistan.”
Ahmadi said Korean negotiators had given assurances that Kabul would release demanded Taliban prisoners, and told Reuters that their “patience is running out.”
The Taliban are also demanding Seoul withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan, which is something the South Korean government said it had planned to do prior to the hostage situation at the end of this year.
Yousif told Reuters it was probable that the remaining hostages would be killed by 1 a.m. Thursday local time (2030 GMT) if the demands weren't met. He warned that the Taliban's latest demand for the release of prisoners in exchange for the remaining hostages was the "last deadline."
The Korean publication Chosun, however, reported that “a Korean government source… said eight of the 23 Korean hostages are believed to have been freed. The source said “as soon as the hostages are handed over, they will be taken to a safe place, undergo a brief medical checkup and be flown back to Korea as soon as possible. Japanese broadcaster NHK quoted an Afghan government source as saying they were seven women and one man.”
Seddiqi could not confirm reports that eight of the Koreans had been freed, according to Reuters. "Yes, they have killed one of the hostages and efforts are underway to have the others released," he said.
Meanwhile, the Christian Post reported that the hostage crisis has fueled anti-Christian sentiment online, saying that the Evangelical churches in Korea are receiving criticism for sending missionaries to Afghanistan.
The story said that Korean netizens “have been building up anti-Christian sentiment by posting up insults to victims and their families on blogs and community forums. Other more extreme and distasteful blogs have been used by some internet users to call for negotiators not to try and seek the hostages’ release, while others have even called for the Korean Christians to be killed.
“The Korean government and the hostages’ families have appealed to the public not to promote anything that might aggravate the situation,” reported the Chosun.
“Chosun also reported that the official websites of Saemmul Church in Bundang, the home church of the hostages, and Korea Foundation for World Aid have had to close after being inundated with attacks and insults for sending the Koreans to Afghanistan.”
The South Koreans were kidnapped at gunpoint from a bus in Ghazni Province's Qarabagh district on Thursday as they were traveling on the main route between Kabul and Kandahar, a road long considered dangerous. According to ASSIST News Service, it is the largest abduction of foreigners since the Taliban regime fell in 2001.
