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Taliban kidnaps Indian driver in Afghanistan New Delhi/Alappuzha: India on Monday confirmed that Maniappan R Kutty, a Border Roads Organization (BRO) driver posted in war-torn Afghanistan, was kidnapped last weekend by the Taliban. The Taliban had on Sunday claimed it kidnapped an Indian road engineer (mistaken for driver) in southern Afghanistan's Nimroz province on Saturday. Two security guards and a driver travelling with him on his car were also kidnapped. Taliban militants made a phone call claiming to have kidnapped the BRO driver, saying that they had taken Kutty along with other men to an undisclosed location. "Shri Kutty was kidnapped along with another Afghan driver and two security guards who were travelling with him from Gurguri from Minnar in the Nimroz province where BRO (Border Roads Organisation under the defence ministry) is undertaking a road construction project from Zeranch to Delaram. This incident took place on November 19 in the afternoon. On the same evening an unidentified caller reported claiming the BRO driver had been kidnapped," said Navtej Sarna, External Affairs Ministry spokesman. Sarna added the Afghan authorities have beefed up security for their men after the incident, and India was in touch with the Afghan authorities and monitoring the situation. "The Embassy of India in Kabul has been in touch with the Afghan authorities to seek their urgent assistance for the early return of Kutty. The Afghan authorities have also strengthened the security for the Indian personnel working on the highway project and other projects, to ensure their safety," he added. The Taliban have kidnapped several Turkish and Indian engineers involved in roadwork in southern Afghanistan in the past years. One of the Turkish engineers was killed and the rest were freed, apparently after ransoms were paid. In September, Taliban militants abducted and killed a Briton involved in a road project in neighbouring Farah province. 'My husband's friends called up' Meanwhile, back home in Kerala, Kutty's wife has not stopped crying since she heard that her husband was kidnapped. "I don't know anything. We got to know about this yesterday evening only. And my husband's friends in the BRO called up and told us that he has not come back. After sometime one of the officers called us and informed that the vehicle is missing and it has been taken away by Taliban. We are trying to contact him," she said while trying to fight back her tears. The latest kidnapping coincides with a rise of violence, including a series of suicide attacks by Taliban militants this week in Kabul and in the south, an erstwhile stronghold of the Taliban before they were ousted by the US led coalition forces in 2001. Some 20,000 US-led coalition troops are in Afghanistan, hunting Taliban fighters and Al Qaeda militants, including Osama bin Laden. More than 1,100 people, mostly militants, have died in the Taliban-led militancy this year in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since the Taliban's ouster. The toll also includes almost 60 foreign troops, most of them Americans. |
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