Peshawar: A Taliban leader has admitted that the Taliban took money from the South Korean government for releasing 19 Koreans kidnapped in Ghazni province of Afghanistan last year.
Ustad Yasir, head of the Taliban information and culture commission, told Pashto monthly Afaaq published from Peshawar that the best way out for Taliban to resolve the crisis of the South Korean hostages was to take money from Seoul and release the hotages, most of whom were women.
He said the world would have made a hue and cry had the Taliban killed the Koreans as most were women. He argued there was no benefit to Taliban if they had freed the hostages unconditionally.
This was the first time Taliban publicly admitted taking money for the release of the Korean hostages in August last year. In the past, they have denied such reports. The South Korean government has been denying that they paid any money to Taliban.
Ustad Yasir had earlier been arrested by Pakistani security forces in August 2005 in Mardan. He was later extradited to Afghanistan where he was imprisoned in the Pul-e-Charkhi jail in Kabul.
Later, he was released along with four other Taliban prisoners in exchange for kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo on March 18, 2007.
The other Taliban prisoners, who were freed as part of the exchange, included another Taliban spokesman Latifullah Hakimi and Mansoor, who was the brother of late Taliban commander Mulla Dadullah.
