Status of aid workers unknown

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Nancy Cassell and John Mercer struggled Tuesday with the latest bad news from Afghanistan: reports that their daughters had been yanked from a Kabul jail the previous night along with six other aid workers and taken south to Kandahar by retreating Taliban forces.

"The unknown is hard," said Ms. Cassell, of Tennessee, who has been in Pakistan since late August trying to secure daughter Dayna Curry's release. "But they've taken good care of them so far."

Ms. Curry and Heather Mercer, both Baylor University graduates, have been held in Kabul since their arrest in early August. They were detained along with the other workers for Germany-based Shelter Now International on charges of preaching Christianity, a crime under Taliban law.

Ms. Cassell and Mr. Mercer, Heather's father, said they received word from a reporter in Kabul on Tuesday morning that their daughters and their counterparts — two Germans and four Australians — had been taken to Kandahar as Taliban forces abandoned the capital city.

Mr. Mercer said he went to the Taliban Embassy in Islamabad, the regime's lone diplomatic outpost, to demand information after hearing reports that his daughter had been moved. He said embassy officials would confirm nothing but agreed to make inquiries from their counterparts in Kandahar, the Taliban's headquarters.

Within hours, however, the Taliban's chief diplomats were seen leaving Islamabad and boarding a flight to the Pakistani border near Kandahar. A Pakistani government spokesman told reporters Tuesday afternoon that the status of the Taliban Embassy was uncertain after the fall of the Afghan capital, and word was circulating in Islamabad that the embassy might close within the next day or two.

Mr. Mercer, who also has been in Pakistan since late August, acknowledged being shaken by Tuesday's developments. But he added that he was trying to take solace in the fact that his 24-year-old daughter and her colleagues would probably be safer outside Kabul.

Mr. Mercer said he last heard from Heather when he received a letter dated Nov. 4, Dayna Curry's 30th birthday.

His daughter wrote that she and all of her colleagues were concerned that their Pakistani lawyer had not been to Kabul in three weeks and needed to return "to keep the case going."

He and Ms. Cassell each said they had hoped a verdict might be returned in their daughters' case sometime this week.

Dayna's father, Dr. Tilden Curry, said the latest developments were "disappointing."

"This clearly changed the dynamic. The danger has increased," said Dr. Curry, who had been in Florida on business and did not hear about the Taliban retreat until late Tuesday morning.

Danny Mulkey, who leads a Waco church attended by the two Americans and has been in Islamabad for 10 weeks to lobby for their release, said Tuesday that not knowing exactly where they are being held was "a little unnerving."

"I did not expect this turn in the road, but you know, it's like everything else in life. It doesn't necessarily make sense," said the pastor of Antioch Community Church. "I just pray all the more."

Staff writer Laura Heinauer contributed to this report.