ARZOO, Afghanistan—Afghan authorities on Tuesday recovered the body of a South Korean hostage who the Taliban kidnappers shot dead after accusing the government of ignoring their demand to release prisoners, a Reuters witness said.
The blood-stained body of the bespectacled male Korean was dumped on a clover field beside a road in Arzoo, a village lying some 10 km (6 miles) to the south of the town of Ghazni.
Police cordoned off the site fearing it could have been booby trapped, but managed to recover it later.
The victim, killed by the Taliban on Monday after a set of deadlines expired, appeared to have been shot in the head.
The 23 hostages, most of them women, were abducted from a bus in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province to the southwest of Kabul. Qarabagh is located some 80 km from Arzoo.
On Wednesday, the Taliban killed the leader of the group.
The government has been keen to rescue the hostages without bowing to the Taliban demands.
The abduction of the Koreans came a day after the Taliban seized two German aid workers and five Afghans in neighboring Wardak province.
The body of one of Germans has been found with bullet wounds, but the other German along with four Afghans are still held by the Taliban who want Germany to pull out from Afghanistan. One of the Afghan captives managed to escape.
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