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KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Afghanistan's interior ministry said a Japanese national had been freed 10 hours after he was kidnapped Tuesday but his release was not confirmed by the aid worker's employer.
Kazuya Ito, 31, was snatched at about 6:30 am as he was going to inspect a canal building project in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
"The Japanese national who was captured this morning was freed in a police operation," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.
"He was found in mountains," he said, adding the aid worker was "healthy."
Bashary said that about 500 villagers had helped police to search for the man in the mountains between Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.
However the nongovernment group that employed Ito, Peshawar-kai (Peshawar Medical Services), would not confirm he had been released.
"We have no information he is freed. There is confusion over one person they have arrested who looks Japanese," Noor Zaman, deputy manager in the city of Jalalabad, told AFP.
The Nangarhar province government also said it did not have information that Ito was freed.
The aid worker was taken with his Afghan driver, who was later released.
The extremist Taliban movement said it had captured the men.
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