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The Korea Muslim Federation on Monday pleaded for the immediate release of 23 Korean citizens abducted in Afghanistan. The group made the call in a press conference at the Seoul Central Masjid in Hannam-dong, Seoul.
The 18 women and five men ˇ°are doctors and nurses who went to Afghanistan to provide medical services for humanitarian purposes,ˇ± the federation said. "On behalf of the 140,000 Muslims in Korea, we earnestly appeal to our Muslim brothers in Afghanistan to help the Korean people be freed safe and return to their beloved families." They added the safe return of the hostages ˇ°will play a great role in promoting mutual understanding between Islam and Korea and expand Islamic missionary work in Korea."
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Al Jazeera's Beijing correspondent Melissa Chan (left) talks to a cameraman in front of the Seoul Central Masjid on Monday. Chan and the Al Jazeera crew interviewed A. Rahman Lee, a spokesman for the Korea Muslim Federation at the Central Masjid on Monday following interviews with relatives of Koreans taken hostage in Afghanistan on Sunday.
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Meanwhile, the Korean evangelical organization 23 of whose members were kidnapped in the war-torn country is to halt volunteer work in Afghanistan. The Rev. Park Eun-jo, pastor of the Saemmul Church in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province said Monday, "We are going to suspend the volunteer activities Afghan people don't want. We've told our church's volunteers there to prepare to leave the country."
Park, who is also chairman of the Korean Foundation for World Aid, the agency that sent the 23 members of his church to Afghanistan, apologized to the Korean public. "We didn't intend that way, but we sincerely apologize to the people for having caused trouble.ˇ± He said the church members are in Afghanistan ˇ°to carry out volunteer work building schools and hospitals. We intended to serve the suffering Afghan people and to carry out medical volunteer work for them,ˇ± Park said. He expressed hope that the Taliban, who abducted the 23 ˇ°will understand our purpose and help us."
Korean Foundation for World Aid president Kim Hyung-suk in a separate statement of apology on Monday afternoon said his organization is considering ways to pull volunteers out to a safe area. The foundation maintains two branches in Afghanistan, in Kabul and Kandahar, where about 40 volunteers are carrying out medical and educational activities at hospitals, nurseries, and universities.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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