Afghanistan's Taliban militia shot dead a male South Korean hostage late Monday, a spokesman said.
"We set several deadlines and the Afghan government did not pay attention to our deadlines," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told Agence France-Presse. "Finally tonight at 8:30 we killed one of the Koreans named Sung Sin with AK-47 gunshots."
Earlier, the deadline for the lives of the remaining 22 South Korean Christians held hostage in Afghanistan was extended to Wednesday, after their Taliban captors let pass two deadlines set for Monday.
Marajudin Pathan, the governor of Ghazni province, where 23 South Korean Christians were abducted on July 19, said the Taliban agreed to extend its deadline until Wednesday to allow time for additional negotiations over the Taliban prisoners' release.
He reported that authorities had talked to the Taliban on Sunday and asked for two more days of talks.
"Fortunately, they did not reject our demand outright, but said that they need to talk to their leaders," Pathan said early Monday, according to The Associated Press.
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 last 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.
