Taliban kidnap Bharati engineer: Not good for anyone

Taliban wants Indians out of Afghanistan

Now that they have killed an innocent Indian engineer, Should India bring back all Indians from Afghanistan. Indians have been building schools and hospitals after the fall of Taliban. Indians have pledged $600m altogether on infrastructure, telecoms, health, education, humanitarian assistance, institutions - a whole cross section and now it has to be seen whether Taliban would force them out.

Taliban demand Indians quit Afghanistan

KANDAHAR: Taliban insurgents on Saturday threatened to kill a kidnapped Indian telecommunications worker unless Indians left Afghanistan.

The Indian and his Afghan driver were kidnapped after gunmen stopped their car on a road in the volatile southern province of Zabul on Friday. The Taliban claimed to have kidnapped him. “If India does not pull out all its nationals working in Afghanistan by 6pm (1330 GMT) tomorrow (Sunday), we’re going to kill him,” said Qari Mohammad Yousuf, the Taliban spokesman, by telephone from an undisclosed location. Yousuf said the Indian was a US spy.

Police reinforcements had been sent to Zabul to help with the hunt for the Indian and his driver, said Gulab Shah Alikhail, spokesman for the governor of Zabul. “By the grace of God, we’ll find him soon safe and sound,” said Alikhail.

He declined to comment on the Taliban demand and threat to kill the Indian, a contract worker for Afghan telecommunications company Roshan.

India has close relations with Afghanistan and is involved in numerous aid and reconstruction projects. India was collaborating with Afghanistan on the kidnap, an Indian government official said in New Delhi. Militants have kidnapped aid agency staff and foreign company workers, who the Taliban say are supporting the Western-backed government. Some have been released but several, including Turks and Indians, have been killed.

In a separate incident on Saturday, two Taliban were killed when government troops attacked a Taliban hideout in the volatile southern province of Helmand, a commander said. reuters.

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