One Nepali hostage dead, another released: Report

A Nepali worker kidnapped in Kabul, Afghanistan two weeks ago has been released while the body of another was recovered after he apparently died of illness, the AFP quoted the interior ministry of Afghanistan as saying.

"A criminal gang that abducted the men on February 11 abandoned them late Monday as police were closing in on them," AFP quoted Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Malek Sidiqi as saying.

"The kidnappers, taking advantage of the cover of night, threw out the hostages. Unfortunately one of them who was suffering from a stomach problem was dead," he told reporters.

The dead man, identified as Jeet Narayan, had been suffering from severe diarrhea.

The released man, Taman Singh Rana, said Narayan had been given medicine but it had not helped, spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said.

The two were employed in Afghanistan as guards with a London-based security group, Armour Security Services, and were guarding a British aid agency based in the capital, Sidiqi said.

The aid group will arrange for the body and the freed man to be transported to the Nepalese embassy in the capital of neighbouring Pakistan, he said. Nepal does not have a mission in Kabul.

Spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry here, Shankar Das Bairagi, said they are confirming the report. nepalnews.com pb Feb 28 06

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