By Xinhua
Kabul : Negotiations on 22 South Korean hostages are going "very well" despite some "technical problems", and they might be freed later Thursday, Afghanistan's Ghazni provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai said.
He did not elaborate on the "technical problems", saying he would speak in detail after the hostages were released.
Taliban Wednesday killed one of the 23 South Koreans they had taken hostage on July 19, but the rest were alive, Ahmadzai said.
The police chief said the hostage was killed as Afghan authorities did not show enough sincerity in the talks and the Taliban also wanted to press the South Korean government to accept their demands.
The Taliban probably would kill more hostages at 1:00 a.m. Thursday if its demands were not met, Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman of the outfit, had earlier said.
He had also warned that the hostages would be executed if Afghan and US-led coalition forces surrounding a suspected Taliban hideout in Qarabagh district of Ghazni in an attempt to storm their base to free the captives.
The Taliban have been demanding the withdrawal of 200 South Korean troops from the war-torn country. The South Korean government said the soldiers would be pulled out at the end of 2007 as scheduled.
Taliban militants have carried out frequent kidnappings in this country over the past two years, and have killed some hostages.