GHAZNI, Oct 10: A German engineer and four Afghans kidnapped in southern Afghanistan in mid-July were freed on Wednesday in exchange for five Taliban prisoners, an official and a Taliban commander said.

Rudolf Blechschmidt, 62, was in good health, said Mohammad Naeem, governor of Jaghato district in Wardak province.

“The German engineer along with four Afghan hostages were freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners,” he said.

Naeem said the exchange happened at the government intelligence office in the provincial capital Maidan Shah about 60 kilometres east of Kabul.

He said the five prisoners freed for the hostages were “not very important Taliban commanders but they are related to the abductors of the German engineers.”

A Taliban commander who was involved in the kidnapping, Mullah Baheer, confirmed the release, saying: “The job is done. We handed the hostages to tribal elders and they handed to us our five prisoners.” A German official in Kabul also confirmed that the engineer was free.

“He is fine. He is on his way to Kabul,” he said on condition of anonymity. He said it was too early to say if and when he would leave for Germany.

Blechschmidt was captured in Wardak on July 18 with another German who fell sick and was shot dead.

The men were seized with five Afghan colleagues, one of whom escaped. They were taken a day before Taliban insurgents abducted 23 South Koreans in adjoining Ghazni province.

The Taliban said afterwards that the kidnapping of foreign nationals was an effective measure to pressure the government.

An Afghan news agency reported on Monday that it was able to visit Blechschmidt and the others and they were being held in a dark room in a cold, mountainous area. —AFP