More abductions may be the cost of Taliban hostage deal

The government’s exchange of five Taliban prisoners for a kidnapped Italian journalist last month appears to have touched off a spate of abductions, as some critics had feared.

In the last two weeks, at least 13 Afghans and two French aid workers have been kidnapped in three incidents. The Taliban claims to be holding at least 10 of the hostages and has said it will free some only if more jailed Taliban are released.

Meanwhile, interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi remains in captivity nearly five weeks after he and the Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, were abducted, with their driver, during a reporting trip in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban’s resurgence is strongest. The driver was beheaded.

Some critics said Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s decision to swap five Taliban prisoners, two of them fairly senior members of the radical Islamist group, for Mastrogiacomo’s freedom would only encourage more kidnappings. Others faulted Karzai for not securing the release of the interpreter as well.

Mastrogiacomo was released March 19.

Naqshbandi’s captors have publicly taunted Karzai, suggesting that he should show the same concern for the life of an Afghan as for a foreigner by releasing three more of their fellow Taliban. The government has refused to comply.

“This act will not be repeated in anyone’s case, with no one, and there will be no favor to any country,” Karzai said at a news conference Friday, referring to the deal that won Mastrogiacomo’s release. “It is not possible.”

The Afghan president said he had been under pressure from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, whose government “was facing collapse.” Karzai said Prodi “called me several times and asked for cooperation from our side.”

Karzai defended his decision, saying it was an act of gratitude for the continued presence of 1,800 Italian troops in Afghanistan. “Even though we knew what this action will cause,” he said, “we had to do it.”

Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a foreign affairs spokesman, said the government had not forgotten about Naqshbandi, whose “fate is also very important for us.”

“We are trying our best through all means to save him. But no exchange.”

Nonetheless, fears that insurgents would be emboldened to carry out more abductions to wring concessions from the government apparently are being realized.

Four Afghan health workers and their driver were kidnapped last week outside the southern city of Kandahar. The Taliban reportedly has said the price for their freedom is the release of some Taliban prisoners held in Kandahar.

“The exchange of five Taliban for the Italian journalist has created this problem,” Kandahar’s police chief, Gen. Esmatullah Alizai, was quoted as saying.

On Tuesday, two French aid workers with the charity Terre d’Enfance and three Afghan staff members disappeared in Nimruz, the southwestern province where they were based, prompting a huge police search. The aid workers’ car was found abandoned. A purported Taliban spokesman has said that the five are being held by the group.

The same day, suspected insurgents dragged off five police officers in an attack in Paktia, a province not far from Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The kidnappings come as North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops gear up for an expected “spring offensive” by militants after the relative lull of winter. International security forces have stepped up patrols and operations in southern Afghanistan.

Although the recent abductions have injected another element of uncertainty in an edgy atmosphere, kidnapping is not a new phenomenon in this violence-racked country.

In the last 12 months, there has been an average of one kidnapping a week in Afghanistan, according to Interior Ministry statistics. In the same period, 169 arrests were connected to kidnappings.

Most of those abducted were Afghans, and in the majority of cases they were released, ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said.

Though ransom money is the motivation for many abductions, news media and aid organizations are worried that their members have become even more valuable targets as a result of the Mastrogiacomo deal.

Bashary said the Italian reporter and the French aid workers had neglected basic safety precautions by failing to apprise police of their plans and movements. In the case of the aid workers, authorities did not know they had vanished until notified by their colleagues.

“This is a clear sign that the police were not informed where they were going,” Bashary said. “These districts are not safe either for Afghans or foreigners. The insurgents do not know or discriminate.”

Mastrogiacomo, who writes for La Repubblica newspaper, was kidnapped with his companions March 5 in Helmand province, an increasingly lawless region in the south where the Taliban insurgency has made its greatest inroads.

Western governments, including Washington, were quick to denounce the release of five Taliban prisoners as giving in to terrorist demands. The criticism was echoed by Afghan lawmakers, political analysts and aid organizations.

“Before, the Taliban had one gun in their hands. Now they have two,” said Shukria Barakzai, a member of the Afghan parliament.

“It was really a big mistake.... The president of Afghanistan crossed the constitution. He has the legal right to [pardon], but not to exchange. He has a clear responsibility to protect Afghan citizens.”

henry.chu@latimes.com