நான்கு ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் நீதிபதிகள் தாலிபானால் கடத்தி கொலை

நான்கு ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் நீதிபதிகள் தாலிபானால் கடத்தி கொலை செய்யப்பட்டார்கள்.

Four kidnapped Afghan judges found dead
August 1, 2007 - 3:41PM

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for murdering four Afghan judges whose bodies were found today in the province where Taliban militants are holding 21 South Koreans.

"We killed them because they worked for the government,'' Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP.

The four were kidnapped two weeks ago in Ghazni, the same province where 23 South Koreans were captured on July 19 and where two have been found dead in murders also claimed by the militants.

An AFP photographer saw the bodies of the four men - one shot in the head, the others in the body - that police said had been dumped in a village about 35 kilometres east of Ghazni city.

The feet of all the bodies were bound and two also had their hands tied, the photographer said.

The men were judges from the neighbouring province of Paktika, deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman told reporters.

"They were killed and their bodies were found in Deh-yak district last night,'' he said.

Earlier media reports had described the men as court officials.

The latest murders of Taliban hostages come as officials are desperately trying to save the South Koreans after warnings from the hardliners that more will be killed unless the government agrees by noon today to demands the release of some of its men from Afghan jails.

The hardliners have also threatened to kill a German national kidnapped in Wardak province, near Kabul, a day before the South Koreans. They also want prisoners to be released in exchange for the engineer, who is being held with four Afghans.

The Islamic militia killed the second South Korean late on Monday after they accused the government of ignoring previous deadlines.

Ahmadi also said another Afghan, whom he accused of "spying for American forces,'' was killed in Ghazni. This could not be independently confirmed.

There have been a string of kidnappings by the Taliban, who have killed several of their hostages, most of them Afghans, as part of a widening insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul Government.

The Taliban, toppled from power in late 2001 by US-led forces for sheltering September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, are said to be copying the tactics of Islamic extremists in Iraq.

The violence, which includes suicide and roadside bombings as well as clashes with security forces, has escalated over the past two years. Thousands of people, most of them Taliban fighters, have been killed.

AFP