News reported by the media about the kidnapping of the three Bulgarian reporters in Afghanistan was exaggerated, according to information released on Tuesday by the Foreign Ministry and the Bulgarian Embassy in Kabul.

24 Chassa reported over the weekend that Georgi Milkov from 24 Chassa, Stoyan Vitanov from Dnevnik, and Emilian Dinov from the Bulgarian National Television had been kidnapped by a tribe in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul.

However, according to the Ministry's release, the three journalists had not been kidnapped but were detained in the village of Astana.

On Monday, 24 Chassa said that the three were being held with 25 other journalists from Germany, Japan, Russia and India.

The Foreign Ministry expressed gratitude to the charge d'affaires of the Afghan embassy in Sofia and the competent Afghan authorities for their understanding and quick reaction. The authorities located the three Bulgarian journalists on Monday and transported them by government helicopter to Talokan, the main city in the government-controlled territories. They were accommodated in the house of the deputy defence minister of the Northern Alliance, General Atikula Barialay, brother of ambassador to Bulgaria Mohammad Fasil Saifi.

The three were in good physical health, said the Foreign Ministry. They were expected to be transported to Dushanbe, Tajikistan on Wednesday, the day their temporary visas expired.

"In the spirit of the traditionally good relations between our two countries, (the Afghan authorities and the Afghan charge d'affaires) applied a preferential approach to solving the problem with the Bulgarian journalists, and to their overall treatment on Afghan soil," said the release.

Astana is located in the valley of Panjshir, controlled by President Burhanudin Rabbani's internationally recognized government. Milkov told 24 Chassa that they were being kept in the house with armed guards for their own protection.

The journalists denied information announced in the Bulgarian media earlier this week, that $3,000 was the cost of an escape from Afghanistan. Milkov said that this figure was from taxi drivers who were offering to take people across the border.

Saifi explained that, according to practices in the country, all the journalists had to be held in a safe place. He said that when the fog from the region lifts, the helicopter will transport them to the capital of Tajikistan.