Taliban launches probe against foreign relief organisation

The offices of a foreign aid organisation will stay sealed and its workers, including eight foreigners, will remain in jail untill the charges that they were propagating Christianity can by investigated, Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said on Monday.
There was no indication of how long the investigation would take, but the Taliban say they already have confessions from some Afghans that the group was proselytising. So far the Taliban have refused to allow anyone to visit those being held, including the organisation's international staff, which include two American women, a German man and an Australian man. The organisation called Shelter Now International is run by a German-based Christian relief agency called Vision for Asia.

The organisation previously had been run by a US-based group of the same name, but the Germans took it over several years ago, after the Americans were threatened for allegedly proselytising in afghan refugee camps. The name of the relief group was never changed in Afghanistan, where it is still known as Shelter Now International.
Norman Leatherwood, executive director of American Shelter Now International, based in Oshkosh, said the two groups have maintained contact about the Afghanistan? relief programme, but the two groups are not affiliated.

He said two American women, a German man and an Australian man were among eight foreigners detained.

Bureau Report