They have allowed one of the hostages to make a plea for help through an Afgan journalist
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/26/wtaliban226.xmlThe article also points out why it's always a bad idea to give in to kidnapping demands.
It emerged last night that a senior leader of the Taliban has ordered more foreign abductions after he was released by the Afghan government in exchange for an Italian journalist in March.
Mansour Dadullah, the commander of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, told Channel 4 News that his release "was a bit of a surprise" but had proved that kidnapping was "a very successful policy".
"I order all my mujahideen to kidnap foreigners of any nationality wherever they find them and then we should do the same kind of deal," he said.
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, said the exchange had been a mistake. "It was an agreement between the Afghans and the Italian Government," he said. "We should never do it again."