AFGHANISTAN: A militant Afghan group holding three foreign UN workers has given negotiators a list of Taliban prisoners and said it will kill the hostages unless they - and all Afghans jailed in Guantanamo Bay - are freed.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said the Jaish-e-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) had handed over the names of at least 25 Taliban followers jailed in Afghanistan whose release it was demanding.
"The United Nations has asked for the list of prisoners and we have given a list of at least 25 people inside Afghanistan," AIP quoted the group's leader Mullah Sayed Mohammad Akbar Agha as saying.
"But we can't give a list for the Guantanamo Bay prisoners.There are many Afghan prisoners there. All of them should be released," Mullah Agha said.
The UN workers - Irishwoman Annetta Flanigan, Filipino Angelito Nayan and Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo - were snatched from a busy Kabul street on Thursday, sparking fears that Afghan militants were copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.
The Pakistan-based AIP did not say if it had the list.
Mullah Agha earlier told Reuters that Wednesday's noon (0730 GMT) deadline for the prisoner release remained in place for now but could be extended if negotiations progressed.
He said negotiations with a "tajir" - an influential trader with wide contacts - were continuing.
A video the group released showed the kidnap victims beside a masked militant, and included a series of demands.
The group has previously called for the release of all Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, the evacuation of all foreign troops from Afghanistan and the closure of UN operations in the country.
Disquiet has been growing among Afghans over the kidnappings and former President Burhanuddin Rabbani - still an influential figure - said they were un-Islamic.
"How can we say these people are Muslims? How can we accept them?" he told Reuters in an interview. "They are creating a bad name for Muslim societies and Muslim people." He praised the hostages as people trying to help Afghanistan.
"There is another clear teaching from our Prophet Mohammad that if a Jew or a Christian, people of the book, come to a Muslim country and anyone tries to harm them, then God will be against them," he said.
Mullah Agha said the negotiator had asked for more proof the hostages were alive, and the group would provide it after asking the hostages the names of siblings and husbands.
The government has previously negotiated the release of several foreign nationals kidnapped by Taliban fugitives, in return for a ransom, and some security sources say a payoff may be the best hope in this case. But it is feared that this could encourage others to kidnap Westerners.