KANDAHAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Police in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar were hunting for the abductors of a US aid worker and her driver as the Taliban militia said it could not "yet" take responsibility.
There was a heavier-than-usual police presence in the area where Cyd Mizell, 49, and her Afghan driver were seized while travelling to work on Saturday and police were searching every vehicle, an AFP reporter said.
"Our goal is to stop the suspected abductors from taking the hostage out of town and hopefully, with God's help, arrest those who have abducted her," said one of the police officers, who gave his name only as Hashmatullah.
The Afghan government said no one had contacted police to claim the kidnapping of Mizell, who works for a small Philippines-headquartered community development organisation.
"The police are working on the case and we are trying our best to make her release safe," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP. "As yet no one has made contact with the police."
The US embassy said it was continuing to look into reports of the abduction.
Officials said Mizell had been wearing a burqa -- the all-encompassing garment that most Afghan women wear and which covers the face -- when she was captured in the city, one of the most risky in Afghanistan for foreign nationals.
Few foreigners live and work in Kandahar because of the threat from Taliban insurgents who are most active in southern Afghanistan.
The Al-Qaeda-linked militia, in government between 1996 and 2001, was involved in a series of abductions of foreigners last year and has said the tactic was effective in putting pressure on the government and its allies.
The organisations's main spokesman told AFP Sunday however that he did not yet know if any one affiliated to the group was involved.
"We don't have information on the abduction of this woman so far. We cannot take responsibility for it as of yet," Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP.
The Taliban killed two of their foreign hostages last year, both South Korean Christian aid workers, when the government did not bow to a demand to release certain of its men from jail.
The other 21 South Koreans were released after negotiations between the militia and Seoul that resulted in a secret deal that reportedly involved a ransom payout.
One of two Germans taken hostage by Taliban at the same time was shot dead after suffering a health breakdown; the other was released after several months in captivity.
Mizell's organisation, the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, said in a statement on its website (www.arldf.net) that it had not been contacted by the kidnappers.
"We hope that Cyd Mizell and her driver will be released safely and quickly. We are doing all we can to resolve the situation," it said.
Mizell had been in the Kandahar area for nearly three years working with women and on income generation projects, it said. She taught English and embroidery and spoke the local language, Pashtu, it said.
Taliban militants have targeted aid workers and reconstruction projects in an attempt to undermine efforts to extend the reach of the government in the provinces.
One of the men searched in Kandahar Sunday condemned the kidnapping as a shameful act for his Pashtun culture, more so because it involved a woman.
"Such abductions have never happened in the history of Afghanistan but in the past couple of years," said Habibullah Khan, in his mid-50s.
"This is a group which hijacks our history, our name and culture," he said, referring to the Taliban.
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