KABUL, Aug 3: South Korean government officials were on Thursday urgently trying to get around 1,500 South Korean Christians out of Afghanistan after Kabul ordered them to leave amid fears of violence.

A government team sent to Afghanistan as the visitors began arriving to attend a ‘peace festival’ scheduled for this weekend was trying to organise their departure as soon as possible, a team member said.

The South Korean government has repeatedly urged them to return home, warning of the dangers of Afghanistan, where the Taliban are staging a comeback and religious matters are highly sensitive.

The festival — to have featured sporting and cultural events — had been called off at the request of the Afghan government, one of the members of the group said.

Afghan authorities had ordered the group, reported to be evangelical Christians, to leave for security reasons. “They said they had some assessment and the risk of them becoming a target is very high,” the government official said.

While officials were trying to get the group out, others still trying to arrive were being turned away at the borders, he said.

A group of clerics in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif has spoken out against the visitors, accusing them of trying to spread Christianity — which they deny.

And a South Korean foreign ministry official said in Seoul a South Korean Red Cross vest planted with explosives was found on July 24 in a village near Kabul, heightening fears of an attack.

The South Korean-based Institute of Asian Culture and Development (IACD), organising the event, said there were about 1,500 South Koreans — some of whom have US or Canadian nationality — in the country, including 600 children.

They say they are only here to help Afghans through medical, education and cultural programmes. They are in the capital and four other towns and cities.

The Afghan government would not officially confirm they had been ordered to leave.

However one high-ranking official said: “They were given tourist visas and now it seems they are misusing their tourist visas.”

South Korean Christians are noted for aggressive evangelism, notably in China and Islamic nations.

Amid the safety concerns, Afghan security forces barred about 700 of them in Kabul from leaving their accommodation on Thursday. They were later given permission to move around with guards, the South Korean government official said.

Western embassies were watching the situation with concern, mindful of dramatic protests that have flared in the past — some of them targeted at foreigners.

IACD Central Asian director Kang Sung-Han said on Wednesday the ‘peace Festival’ was intended to encourage South Koreans to help Afghanistan rebuild after decades of war and the toppling of the Taliban nearly five years ago.

“We are not against the policies of Afghanistan. We respect and we love Afghanistan,” he said.

The interior ministry also said it believed the group aimed to help the country.

“In the past they have visited war-torn countries like Bosnia and Iraq. This year they came here to just to encourage people towards peace and stability,” spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said

Religious matters can cause tempers to flare in Afghanistan. The conversion of an Afghan to Christianity caused weeks of debate in March over whether he should be executed under Shariat.

The controversy died down when the convert, Abdul Rahman, was spirited away to Italy amid fears for his life.—AFP