As negotiations for the freedom of the remaining 22 hostages appeared to make little headway, Karzai spoke Sunday with a special envoy from Seoul about the efforts to try to speed up the hostages' release, Afghan officials said. Photographers were reportedly allowed into the meeting for a brief moment but officials were not immediately available to comment on the talks, reported Agence France-Presse.
According to reports, Karzai criticised the Taliban's kidnapping of "foreign guests," especially women, as contrary to the tenets of Islam.
"This will have a shameful effect on the dignity of the Afghan people," Karzai said in a statement from the presidential palace released after talks with a South Korean delegation.
It has been over a week since Taliban militants abducted 23 South Korean Christians, including 18 women, in insurgency-prone Ghazni province. The church group was on their way to provide free medical services to poor Afghan citizens when their bus was hijacked last Thursday.
Since the abduction – the largest abduction of foreigners in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 – one hostage has been killed. The leader of the aid group, Bae Hyung-kyu, was found dead this past Wednesday with 10 bullet holes in his body.
Although the kidnappers have threatened to kill the remaining captives if their demands are not met and have reported that some of them were in poor health, Afghan officials have said they are optimistic the hostages will be freed without further bloodshed.
“Today we are hopeful to get a good result because more and more elders have gathered from Ghazni,” said Qarabagh police chief Khwaja Mohammad on Saturday, according to AP. “I hope the Taliban will listen to these negotiations now because they are neutral people – elders from around Qarabagh district.”
On Saturday, Abdul Salaam Rocketi, a former Taliban member who is now part of the Afghan parliament, joined the negotiating team for the release of the hostages.
