On July 19, 2007, a group of 23 South Korean missionaries were captured and held hostage by members of the Taliban while passing through Ghazni Province of Afghanistan. The group, composed of sixteen women and seven men, was captured while traveling from Kandahar to Kabul by bus on a mission sponsored by the Saemmul Presbyterian Church. The crisis began when two local men, who the driver had allowed to board, started shooting to bring the bus to a halt. Over the next month, the hostages were kept in cellars and farmhouses and regularly moved in groups of three to four.
The Taliban killed two of the abducted South Koreans, Bae Hyeong-gyu, a 42-year-old South Korean the pastor of Saemmul Church, and Shim Seong-min, a 29-year-old South Korean man, on July 25 and 30, respectively. Later, with negotiations making progress, two women, Kim Gyeong-ja and Kim Ji-na, were released on August 13, and the remaining 19 hostages on August 29 and 30.
The release of the hostages was secured with a South Korean promise to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2007.
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