Japanese aid worker abducted in Afghanistan

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The Afghan government has told Japan a report that a Japanese aid worker kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan had been freed was erroneous, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary had said in Kabul Afghan police freed the kidnapped Japanese man, identified as 31-year-old aid worker Kazuya Ito, in a raid hours after he was seized by a group of gunmen.

"There is lots of contradictory information," the Japanese foreign ministry official said. "Basically, we are still just looking for information, including the whereabouts of the person."

Bashary was not taking calls and cancelled a planned interview with Reuters Television.

Provincial officials in the east also said they did not believe the Japanese man had been freed.

Taliban insurgents, who have been behind a series of abduction of Afghans and foreigners in recent years, said they had no information about the abduction.

Earlier, the Japanese government said it was looking into the kidnapping of Ito, who worked for a non-governmental organization called Peshawar-kai.

Ito's mother told reporters her son had wanted to work in Afghanistan, even at the risk of his own life.

"He said he was having fun, that he was getting along with others," she said.

Japan does not have troops in Afghanistan, but its navy runs a maritime refueling operation in support of U.S.-led military operations in the country.

Asked how the abduction would affect Japan's naval mission in Afghanistan, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said only that the incident was an example of the conditions that required international efforts to help reconstruct the country.

The refueling mission is set to become a focal point of a session of parliament to be convened next month.

Unpopular Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda wants to extend the mission in the Indian Ocean after legislation expires in January.

But the opposition-controlled upper house will almost certainly reject a new bill to do so and the junior partner in the ruling coalition is wary of upsetting voters, many of whom oppose prolonging the mission, by forcing through the bill.

Peshawar-kai, based in southern Japan, was set up in 1983 and provides medical services in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to its website (here).

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds and Chisa Fujioka in TOKYO and Mohammad Rafiq in JALALABAD; Editing by Bill Tarrant)