Japanese aid worker who was kidnapped along with his local interpreter early Tuesday morning were killed in clash between security forces and Taliban fighters in eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
"Afghan security forces in efforts to secure the safe release of Japanese national cordoned off the area and exchanged fire with Taliban fighters during which the Japanese man and his local interpreter were killed in Khiwa district," Mujahid told reporters.
The ill-fated Japanese aid worker, Kazuya Ito, 31, had worked for a water supply project in Kuz Kunar district of Nangarhar province and was abducted along with his local interpreter as he arrived at the site of his work at 6:30 a.m. local time, Syed Ghafor Ghafori a member of Provincial Council in Nangarhar told Xinhua.
He also added that hundreds of locals surrounded the area to help ensure the safe release of the abductees.
However, government officials in both Nangarhar and Kabul are reluctant to confirm the claim made by Taliban, saying police have been trying to secure the safe and sound release of the aid worker.
Apparently as a change of tactic, Taliban militatns have focused their gun towards aid workers as they killed three female aid workers of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the southern Logar province, 60km away from Kabul, in 13th this month.
Japan as a leading nation in the reconstruction of the war-torn Afghanistan after the U.S. with a contribution of more than one billion U.S. dollars has been financing dozens of development projects in the post-Taliban central Asian state.