Beloved of the People of Kuz Kunar

In memoriam: Kazuya Ito, 31, kidnapped and murdered by the Taliban. Before his body was found, 500 villagers launched a "massive operation" to try and rescue him.

Ito was an agricultural engineer with the Japanese aid agency Peshawar-kai, which employs 250 Pakistanis and Afghans, and its canal and water supply project in the Dara-e-Noor Valley has turned deserts back into lush green fields, allowing 10,000 people to return to their farms.

Ito was looking forward to the results from the construction of a 14-kilometre canal, which began in 2003.

Peshawar-kai: "Go where others dare not go. Do what others dare not do."

Ito was more precious than ten million of these.