By Rahimullah Yusufzai, Senior Editor of The News

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Abdullah Jan, a purported Taliban commander in Karabagh, Ghazni province, where the South Korean hostages were kidnapped, said on August 22 that there was a “60-70 percent chance of failure” for the South Korean government’s efforts to persuade the Afghan and U.S. governments to release Taliban prisoners in return for the Korean hostages.

“The South Korean government is expected to fail to swap Taliban prisoners with hostages,” Jan said in a satellite telephone interview. “However, we will wait until the South Korean government announces its failure,” he said.

Jan’s remarks are seen as having put strong pressure on the South Korean government. Other Taliban officials, in interviews with the foreign media, said that they were feeling severe fatigue as the hostage crisis continued to drag on.

The crisis began when 23 South Korean Christian volunteers were kidnapped on July 19 after the bus in which they were travelling was overcome by Taliban insurgents. Two of the hostages have since been executed and two were released earlier this month.

Jan said that no progress was made in telephone negotiations with the South Korean government and that there was no immediate plan to resume face-to-face negotiations. In addition, he claimed that the Taliban had secured additional land in a battle on August 22 with the Afghan military and executed government officials.

Currently, negotiations between the Taliban and the South Korean government hang in the balance. The South Korean government is asking the Taliban to give them more time, without yet having persuaded the Afghan and U.S. governments to change their positions on the matter. Though the Taliban insurgents are waiting things out for now, because they understand that more hostage killings are not helpful, it is uncertain whether their demands will be met.

For now, the only imaginable hope for the fate of the South Korean hostages is the month-long observance of Ramadan, which begins this year in mid-September. In general, special pardons for Muslim prisoners have been made during this period. Though such pardons will not be possible for the South Korean hostages, who are Christians, the South Korean government could ask prominent Muslim scholars or ordinary citizens to appeal to the Taliban to release them. At the same time, the South Korean government could persuade the Afghan government to free the Taliban prisoners in light of the Ramadan period.