A spokesman for commander Abdullah Jan, was unable to name the person saying "their names are very difficult to remember," The Korea Times newspaper reported.
Two women hostages were freed Monday, August 13, following face-to-face talks between a two-member Taliban delegation and South Korean officials. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi reportedly said that although personal negotiations had been "suspended" telephone contact continued.
News about the circumstances of the release came as the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Samuel Kobia, announced he met families and relatives of the hostages who have been holding daily prayer vigils. Of the 23 hostages captured July 19, two have been killed. Nineteen Christians, most of them women, are still held by the Taliban.
MILLIONS PRAY
During the 40-minute meeting Tuesday, August 15, which was held at the hostages’ Sammul Presbyterian Church in Bundang near Seoul, Kobia told the families that "millions of Christians around the world" were praying for the speedy and safe release of the hostages.
"Their pain is our pain; their tears are our tears," Kobia said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife. "You could see their pain and agony. It was written all over their faces," he said of the families. "It was a very moving moment for me."
Members of the hostages’ families are meeting at the church on a daily basis, Kobia said, arriving in the morning and often staying until 10 p.m. local time. While at the church, dozens
of people, many of them youngsters, assist the families by cooking meals and offering "mutual support and encouragement," he added.
Kobia met the hostages’ families at the end of a weeklong trip to Korea where he attended two pre-planned conferences, one celebrating the 100th anniversary of the ‘Great Revival of 1907’ when Pyongyang became the center of Christianity on the Korean peninsula. The other conference attended by Kobia focused on the reunification of the Korean peninsula.
