Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said yesterday that 24 foreign and local staff from an international foreign aid agency detained for propagating Christianity were safe, but their fate would be determined under Islamic law.
The hardline Islamist movement added that 59 children, who were allegedly being taught by the Christian workers, also had been sent to a correctional facility.
"The investigation is still going on," the Taliban Deputy Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mr Mohammad Salim Haqqani, told a news conference. "A decision under the framework of Islamic sharia [law] and on the basis of the orders of Amirul Mominin [the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar] will be taken soon."
The Taliban said 16 local and eight international staff, who included four Germans, two Australians and two Americans, worked for Shelter Now International (SNI) in the capital, Kabul.
They all stand accused of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity - a crime punishable by death in Afghanistan.
"They have no message for their families or their government and are [being] looked after well and have no problem," Mr Haqqani said.
Mr Haqqani said the 59 children would be detained until they were free of Christian influence. "We have put 59 Afghan children in a correction house to remove from their hearts and minds the Christian teachings and once that is done they will be set free," he said.
Mr Haqqani added that two of the female SNI staff - an American and an Australian - had confessed to being involved in converting Afghans to Christianity soon after they were arrested at a house belonging to an Afghan national in Kabul. "They have asked the Emirate and Muslims to pardon them and will be treated in the light of sharia laws," he added.
Mr Haqqani said earlier the 16 Afghans were being held separately from their foreign colleagues.
A US embassy spokesman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said they still had no official confirmation from the Taliban about the arrest of the Americans.
Mr Haqqani said other SNI offices in Afghanistan were also being investigated to determine if they were involved in similar proselytising activities.
SNI, on its website (www.shelter.org), describes itself as a Christian relief and development organisation that is a member of the Association of Evangelical Relief Organisations (AERDO). It has been running relief projects for Afghan refugees in Pakistan for the last 16 years and opened offices inside Afghanistan last year.
UN officials say SNI is an international non-governmental relief organisation supported by various Western countries.
The official Taliban news agency Bakhtar said authorities had found Bibles in a house of the agency's Afghan staff. Taliban radio said the agency's foreign staffers were arrested while trying to convert members of an Afghan Muslim family by showing them material about Christianity on a computer.