Kidnapped Logar deminers released

PUL-I-ALM (Pajhwok): Taliban gunmen on Saturday released eight deminers of a mine clearing NGO a day after they kidnapping them in central Logar province, police chief said.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai told Pajhwok Afghan News militants abducted two workers of the Hello Trust, an NGO, along with six of its drivers on Friday.

The kidnappers also torched the deminers’ four vehicles and two ambulances, he added. The captives had been taken to Zarghoon Shahr, a village in Mohammad Aghi district, he noted.

Azizullah, a resident of the locality, said deminers had been working in Daudkhel area close to Pul-i-Alm, the provincial capital, since last one year.

Some locals were working in the NGO and two of the abducted drivers were the resident of this area, he said. Another resident who wished to go unnamed said: “Taliban torched the vehicles of the NGO.”

Hasibullah Stanekzai, provincial council head, urged insurgents not to harass deminers since their job was to save innocent lives only.

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