Japanese aid worker killed in Afghanistan

SHEWA, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A Japanese aid worker kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan has been killed by his captors, the governor of Nangarhar province said on Wednesday.

Kazuya Ito, 31, was kidnapped by gunmen on Tuesday in Nangarhar. Hours after the abduction, the interior ministry said police had launched a raid to rescue the Japanese.

Provincial governor Gul Agha Sherzai, together with Afghan police and international troops, traveled to the village of Shewa to recover the body.

"This is a really cruel act, he was killed brutally. This is a very un-Islamic move," said a weeping Sherzai as he hugged colleagues of the dead aid worker.

"The person we arrested in connection with this action must be executed ... and I will pass this message to the president and to the supreme judge," he added.

A Reuters reporter saw the bullet-riddled body of the victim after it was brought down from the mountain.

Sherzai did not say who the kidnappers were or explain how Ito was killed. The Afghan foreign ministry said the captive was killed by "terrorists", a term often used by government to describe Taliban and other militants.

"It's the worst thing that could possibly happen. It's what we hoped would never happen," Mitsuji Fukumoto, who worked for the same Peshawar-kai aid agency, told reporters in Fukuoka, Japan.

"We must not waste Ito's efforts. I believe we should continue our activities," he added, at one point bowing his head and wiping tears from his eyes.

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

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.

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 Mohammad Rafiq; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Alex Richardson)