KABUL, May 19: A man claiming to have abducted an Italian aid worker in Kabul threatened to kill her on Thursday unless his demands were met, even though Afghan officials said there was no imminent threat to her life. “The deadline we had given yesterday runs out today at 10:00 am (0530 GMT) ... and we might kill her,” an alleged abductor calling himself Temur Shah said, speaking from kidnapped aid worker Clementina Cantoni’s cell phone.
Temur Shah, whose identity remains murky, could not be reached by phone after making his threat and Cantoni’s welfare was impossible to establish hours after the deadline ran out. But Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said security officials were in contact with the kidnappers of the Italian aid worker and so far they believed that she was safe.
“As far as I have received information up to now, I can only say that some government officials in the security sector are in contact,” Abdullah told a news conference in Tokyo where he was on a three-day visit.
“And they are aware of the safety of the kidnapped, but I have no further information,” he said. It remains unclear whether Shah is linked to a criminal gang, originally thought to have been behind the kidnapping, or if he has ties to Islamic militants.
Local media have named Shah as the suspected kidnapper, but Afghan officials have yet to make any comment on the suspected abductor’s identity or his alleged involvement in Cantoni’s disappearance. Cantoni, 32, who works for CARE International, was dragged from her car by armed men in the Qala-i-Mosa district of Kabul on Monday evening.
Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said police were in contact with the kidnappers and that no firm deadline had been set for their demands to be met despite Shah’s claims.
“The negotiation with the kidnappers is ongoing and there is no set deadline. We have not come to any agreement yet,” Mashal said. Shah said that the Italian woman may be killed if the Afghan government does not accept demands including a ban on alcohol and a television music program. Selling alcohol to Afghans is already illegal in Afghanistan although it is widely sold to foreigners at a variety of bars and restaurants.—AFP
