Known affectionately by his parishioners as “Mr Smile”, the Reverend Bae Hyng Kyu knew the huge risks of leading young Christian missionaries into the Islamic heart of Afghanistan, yet did so with irrepressible good cheer.

On Wednesday he paid the ultimate price for his passionate faith. Mr Bae died on his 42nd birthday, murdered by Taleban militants as the first victim of a hostage crisis that has shaken South Korean society to its core.

In the most broadband-connected country, the kidnapping and Mr Bae’s death have triggered an increasingly bitter online war, pitting netizens against Government and bringing censorship to one of the world’s most vibrant online communities.

At churches and community centres across Seoul, thousands of evangelists crumpled in grief upon hearing of his death, fearing too that it would lead to further deaths among the 22 surviving captives. Worst was the mourning at the Saemmul Presbyterian Church that Mr Bae helped to found in 1998. It was there that his wife and nine-year-old daughter learnt of his fate.

However, the support the families have received in the real world has not been matched on Korean websites, where there was condemnation of Mr Bae’s mission. South Korean police conducted searches yesterday – in the real and virtual worlds – for internet users posting comments deemed likely to jeopardise continuing negotiations with the surviving hostages’ Taleban captors. They demanded that some online material should be removed and were considering arresting some internet users for defamation, they said.

Government officials in Seoul said it was this type of commentary that “turned the crisis into a religious issue” and could do the most damage to the captives. The online furore will have been fuelled by the publication yesterday of an appeal from one of the female hostages, who begged for help and spoke of “dreadful conditions”. CBS News reported that it had spoken to Yo Cyun Ju after arranging an interview with a Taleban commander.

The militants have extended the deadline for negotiating the release of the hostages until noon today, according to a spokesman. A South Korean envoy flew to Afghanistan yesterday to help officials in their efforts to obtain the captives’ freedom.

The hostage crisis has stirred a fervent debate among Koreans over the rights and wrongs of evangelists travelling to locations that the Government has designated as a travel risk.

Because the kidnappers have used their new leverage over Seoul to demand the release of Taleban prisoners in Afghanistan and for the immediate withdrawal of South Korean troops from their country, many online pundits have used their columns and message boards to deliver harsh criticism of Mr Bae and his group.

Others have launched direct attacks on the evangelist movement in South Korea, which sends about 1,000 new missionaries abroad each year, often to countries where they can expect an extremely hostile reception to their Christian zeal.

The ferocity of the online attacks became too much for the families of the kidnap victims to bear yesterday. In tears, dozens of evangelists and supporters of the families appeared on television begging internet users to cease their onslaught.

In a response condemned on many websites as a “hasty and irrational constraint on free speech”, the office of the President made a formal public demand that no more criticism of the missionaries should appear online. It was anxious that the criticism of the missionaries was not translated into English for nonKorean websites.

Church groups have retaliated. Christian leaders who studied with Mr Bae posted comments on their websites attesting to their old friend’s devotion to the church and its works.

Even as he faced death at the hands of the Taleban, they reported, Mr Bae’s main concern was not for his life. He wanted desperately to donate his organs to medical research at a hospital in Anyang, but feared they would be rejected if riddled with bullet holes.

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