October 12, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 29, 1428

KABUL, Oct 11: An Afghan man and a German engineer freed with him after a three-month hostage ordeal on Thursday accused the group’s police escort of handing them over to their Taliban kidnappers.

The Afghan, who did not want his identity revealed for fear of retaliation from his captors, told AFP a day after their release that he also saw a second German hostage shot dead after they were seized on July 18.

The Afghan man said he feared he would suffer the same fate after the group from two construction companies were seized in Wardak province near Kabul.

He also revealed that a total of five Afghans had been released with the German, not four as originally stated by a district governor on Wednesday.

The surviving German, 62-year-old Rudolf Blechschmidt, flew out of Afghanistan on Thursday after he and the others were released in exchange for five Taliban prisoners. He was expected in Germany later in the day.

German radio station Antenne Bayern reported that he had told his family on Monday via satellite telephone that police officers intended to protect him and his team had been expecting the kidnappers and greeted them when they arrived.

“It had all been arranged,” Blechschmidt said, according to the report.

The group had travelled to a dam in Wardak called Band-i-Sultan which they had been contracted to repair, the Afghan man said.

They had been escorted by local police who had been communicating with someone by telephone during the trip, saying when they would get there.

They were captured 10 minutes after their arrival, he said.

“Before we started doing anything, we saw the Taliban walking towards us.

“I told the police, ‘The Taliban are coming’. But they did not do anything. I took a rifle but one of the policemen slapped me and said: ‘There are more than 50 to 100 Taliban here. Why do you do that’?” But their abductors only numbered a few and the group – two Germans and six Afghans – were bundled off as police stood by.

“The police of our own country handed us over to the Taliban,” the man said.

“When the police of my own country trade me and deal with the Taliban, how can one trust anyone?” He said their abductors were prepared to start killing the Afghan hostages when they received word that the father of one of the ringleaders had been picked up by intelligence police.

The father was one of the men eventually released from custody in exchange for the hostages, he said.

Jaghato district governor Mohammad Naeem said on Wednesday five Taliban were freed for the group, which a Taliban spokesman confirmed. The interior ministry said however it did not know of any prisoners being released.

The Afghan said that during his time in captivity, the group was moved around often and made to carry their captors’ weapons. They also saw the Taliban rig up a car bomb.

Blechschmidt reportedly described the treks as gruelling, saying he was forced to walk hundreds of kilometres with heavy packs and camp in the open in the mountains with only his summer-weight clothing with him.

“The conditions were horrible,” he was quoted as saying.

After few days, one of the Germans who struggled to keep up with the rest of the group was shot dead by a Pakistani Taliban whom the captives called Mullah Grenade because he was short and stout.

“The mountains were very hard to climb and he was always last and asking, ‘Please go slowly’,” the freed Afghan hostage said.

“Mullah Grenade kicked him in the chest, and said, ‘Why do you always complain?’ And then he shot him’.” Blechschmidt said his 44-year-old colleague had been killed in cold blood.

“The Taliban said it was a mistake but it didn’t look that way,” he said.

In the next weeks, the Taliban allowed another of the Afghans to ‘escape’ after apparently receiving money for him from his family, the Afghan said.

He said he despaired of his future in Afghanistan.

“When my own country’s police sells me to someone else, when another Afghan wants to puts a knife to my throat, why? What can I expect from this?” he asked.—AFP