The body of an Indian telecommunications engineer, kidnapped and beheaded by Taliban guerrillas, was flown home on Monday as India pledged to help Afghanistan fight terrorism and rebuild.
KABUL: The body of an Indian telecommunications engineer, kidnapped and beheaded by Taliban guerrillas, was flown home on Monday as India pledged to help Afghanistan fight terrorism and rebuild.
The engineer, identified as Suryanarayana, 41, was kidnapped with his Afghan driver when gunmen stopped their vehicle in the southern province of Zabul on Friday.
Suryanarayan was found beheaded on Sunday, dumped by a road not far from where he was seized. Police say the fate of the driver is not known.
The Taliban, fighting to expel foreign troops and defeat the Western-backed government, claimed responsibility. A Taliban spokesman had earlier demanded that India withdraw its nationals from Afghanistan.
India has ruled that out. “We remain committed to fight together against terrorism with Afghanistan and we remain committed to the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” Indian ambassador Rakesh Sood told reporters at Kabul airport.
A senior Afghan official blamed “common enemies” of India and Afghanistan for the killing.
Indian soldiers stood at attention as the flag-draped coffin was taken and loaded on a flight to India.
Sood said an Afghan investigation would determine who was behind Suryanarayan''s killing and India was working with Afghan authorities to ensure security for its people working in Afghanistan.
Relations between India and Afghanistan have flourished since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 and India is involved in numerous Afghan aid and reconstruction projects.
India's old rival Pakistan, which backed the Taliban until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, is suspicious of India's growing influence in Afghanistan.
At the same time, relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have soured over repeated Afghan accusations Taliban and other insurgents operate from Pakistan's lawless border region, and the Pakistani government is not doing enough to stop them.
Pakistan is battling pro-Taliban and al Qaeda militants on its side of the border and rejects the Afghan complaints.
“There are common enemies who India and Afghanistan have who do not want India here,” Jawed Ludin, a senior official in President Hamid Karzai's office, told reporters at the airport. He did not elaborate.
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