GHAZNI, Afghanistan, 11 October 2007 — A 62-year-old German engineer and four Afghans kidnapped 13 weeks ago by Taleban-linked militants were freed yesterday in exchange for five Taleban prisoners, an Afghan official said. Rudolf Blechschmidt and four others were swapped with the rebels in the offices of the Afghan intelligence services in the Wardak province capital Maidan Shah, 60 kilometers west of Kabul, a district governor said.
The engineer, who is said to have heart problems, told the German Spiegel Online website he was fine. “I am doing well, I’m just very tired,” he said by telephone shortly after his release, the site reported. “I am happy to finally be free after such a long time.”
Mohammad Naeem, governor of Wardak’s Jaghato district where the group was snatched on July 18, said the men were freed for five “not very important Taleban commanders.” Some of the five rebels were related to the kidnappers, he said. One was reported to be the father of one of the masterminds of the kidnapping, Mullah Nizamuddin. The kidnappers claimed ties with the extremist Taleban movement that has abducted dozens of foreigners and Afghans, some of whom have been killed.
Another Taleban commander who was involved in the kidnapping, Mullah Baheer, confirmed the release to AFP, saying: “The job is done. We handed the hostages to tribal elders and they handed to us our five prisoners.” Kabul in March freed five senior Taleban to secure the release of an Italian hostage whose driver and interpreter were beheaded.
The government was heavily criticized internationally for dealing with “terrorists” and vowed it would never swap prisoners again. No Afghan government official would comment Wednesday on the latest prisoner exchange.
In Berlin, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier thanked Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government for “their tireless and ultimately successful efforts” to free the group.
Meanwhile, gunmen opened fire on people praying in a remote village’s mosque in central Afghanistan, killing two men, while a mullah was gunned down separately in new Ramadan attacks, police said yesterday.
In the west of the country, security forces discovered three rockets set to be fired on a ceremony attended by senior Afghan and NATO officials at a military air base outside the city of Herat.
The mosque attack happened late Tuesday in Sayed Abad district of Wardak province just south of the capital, Kabul, provincial deputy police commander Mohammad Asif Banwal told AFP. Two people, including a teacher, were killed while 10 others were wounded, all of them “innocent villagers,” he said.
