The British government is working with local authorities in a bid to rescue a U.K. aid worker and her three Afghan colleagues who were abducted in Afghanistan on Sept. 26.
>>4 Aid Workers Abducted in Afghanistan
U.S. special forces have reportedly joined the search for the missing aid workers, who were seized from their cars by gunmen while traveling in convoy through the Kunar province, according to the Guardian.
The Taliban was “not taking responsibility” for the kidnapping, said the group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid. The Taliban was “investigating the reports” but did not know anything about the kidnapping, Mujahid told BBC.
But there are speculations that the female aid worker is being held by the Taliban in order to force a prisoner swap, the Herald Scotland says. The Taliban reportedly wants to exchange the aid worker for Aafia Siddiqui, a female Pakistani scientist who was sentenced to serve 86 years in prison last week by a U.S. court for trying to kill U.S. officials.
The female U.K. aid worker is believed to have hailed from Scotland and previously worked at the United Nations, BBC reports.
“She is the best foreigner I have ever met, she is wonderful - and loved by Afghans so much,” BBC quoted one colleague of the female aid worker on condition of anonymity as saying.
The family of the British aid worker said it was informed of the developments concerning the incident but was advised by the U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office not to speak to the media at the moment, the Guardian reports.
“She has been doing aid projects for a great number of years,” a family friend was quoted by The Guardian as saying.
The four aid workers were employees of DAI, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
