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Indian hostage killed in Afghanistan
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSKABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A body found in Afghanistan has been identified as that of an Indian telecommunications engineer who was kidnapped earlier in the week by Taliban members, a regional police chief said. Police Chief Mohammed Nabeel Malahkili said the body discovered in Zabol province on Sunday had been beheaded. The leaders of Afghanistan and India condemned the killing, the second of an Indian hostage in southern Afghanistan in the past six months. "The death of the Indian engineer who was working for the construction and reconstruction of Afghanistan is no doubt the work of enemies of Afghanistan," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his condolences to Suryanarayan's family and urged his country "to remain unified in the face of this terrorism." K. Suryanarayan, who worked for the Roshan mobile telephone company, was abducted along with his Afghan driver Friday afternoon as he traveled from Kandahar to Kabul. A statement from the Taliban demanded that all Indian workers leave Afghanistan within 24 hours or the hostage would be killed. After the body was found, a Taliban spokesman said the group had not planned to kill the hostage but when he tried to escape, they shot him. Malakhili said the body was handed over to Roshan officials in neighboring Ghazni province. The Roshan company is based in Bahrain. India has close relations with Afghanistan and is involved in several aid and reconstruction projects. In India, Foreign Minister Shyam Saran vowed that Indian workers would continue to help rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure. "The government and people of India, I can assure you, will never bow to such acts of terrorism and will continue their fraternal assistance to the people of Afghanistan in their endeavors to bring peace, stability and economic recovery to their country, ravaged by years of conflict," the minister said. Saran also called on the international community to join together to defeat the Taliban, which he called a "scourge to humanity." Karzai ordered security forces to hunt down those responsible. "The enemies of Afghanistan .... want to stop Afghanistan from developing and standing on its own feet," Karzai said in a statement, according to Reuters. Violence in the Afghan south has hampered development, and the job of thousands of NATO troops due soon to arrive into the region will be to ensure sufficient security for reconstruction. Militants have frequently kidnapped aid agency staff and foreign company workers, who the Taliban say are supporting the Western-backed government. Journalist Ruhullah Khapalwak in Kabul contributed to this report. Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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