TOKYO: Japan said Tuesday it could not confirm the safety of a Japanese aid worker kidnapped at gunpoint with his driver in eastern Afghanistan, despite earlier accounts that the hostage had been released.

Kazuya Ito, 31, was abducted near the city of Jalalabad early Tuesday, said the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Japan set up a task force in Kabul to seek his release. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichita Yamamoto said a high ranking Afghan official had earlier informed the Japanese Embassy in Kabul that Ito was released. But another Afghan official later backtracked, Yamamoto said.

"We were told from the Afghan government that the information was wrong," Yamamoto told a news conference at the ministry in Tokyo. "We cannot confirm his safety. We cannot contact him," he said.

Earlier, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashery said Afghan police freed the Japanese hostage during an operation. He said one Taliban militant was wounded in the operation and escaped.

Ghafor Khan, the spokesman for the police chief in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, also said Afghan police found the Japanese aid worker. But Yamamoto said those accounts were wrong and that efforts to secure Ito's release were still ongoing.

Afghan police and Interior Ministry officials could not immediately be reached to respond to the Japanese statement. The Japanese government said no ransom demands were made.

The Kyodo news agency said Ito and his driver were abducted by a group of armed assailants. It said the driver was released soon afterward.

Manji Fukumoto, the head of the aid group Peshawar kai where Ito worked, said Ito was kidnapped by four men. "Of the four, two were armed. At this moment, he is alive," Fukumoto told a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Fukuoka, southern Japan, where the aid group is based.

Ito was an agriculture specialist with the Peshawar kai, which runs clinics in the region. The Foreign Ministry said Ito was the first Japanese to be kidnapped in Afghanistan, which has been rocked by increasing violence in recent months.

Fukumoto said Ito was not assigned any bodyguards. "We did not assign security guards," he said. "We have told our staff not to act alone."

Source : AP