Top Stories - Yahoo! India News
Kidnapped Indian found beheaded - Afghan police
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A kidnapped Indian telecommunications worker has been found beheaded in southern Afghanistan, police said on Sunday.
The man and his Afghan driver were kidnapped on Friday. Taliban insurgents said on Saturday they took both men and vowed to kill the Indian unless India withdrew all its workers from Afghanistan in 24 hours.
"We found the body, beheaded, in a ditch by a road, about 10 km from where he was kidnapped," said Mohammad Mir, a district police chief in the southern province of Zabul.
The man, identified by the Indian government as K. Suryanarayan, 41, was kidnapped with his driver after gunmen stopped their vehicle on a road in Zabul province.
Mir said there was no word on the fate of the Afghan driver.
Suryanarayan appeared to have been killed on Saturday evening and his body had been taken to Ghazni province, he said.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone Suryanarayan had been shot dead on Saturday evening while trying to escape.
Violence and lawlessness across much of the Afghan south has crippled development, and the main task of thousands of NATO troops due soon to move into the region will be to ensure sufficient security for reconstruction.
Militants have kidnapped aid agency staff and foreign company workers, who the Taliban say are supporting the Western-backed government.
Taliban spokesman Yousuf said on Saturday Suryanarayan was a U.S. spy and he would be killed if India did not withdraw all of its nationals working in Afghanistan by 6 p.m. (1330 GMT) on Sunday.
India has close relations with Afghanistan and is involved in numerous aid and reconstruction projects.
Indian officials said on Saturday India was committed to maintaining a presence in Afghanistan to help work on economic development.
Indian embassy officials in Afghanistan confirmed today that the body of the abducted Indian engineer K. Suryanarayana had been found in Kandahar. The Taliban abducted Suryanarayana at gunpoint on Friday. 

His abductors had stated that if all Indian citizens in Afghanistan did not leave that country by 7 p.m. IST (1330 UTC) today, Suryanarayana, who they claimed was an "American spy", would be killed. Suryanarayana was apparently killed while he was trying to escape a few hours ago. The Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has condemned the beheading, calling it an "inhuman act". Indian security forces are enroute to Afghanistan to investigate the matter and the Indian Foreign Secretary Mr. Shyam Saran has said that India will do whatever it takes to bring the perpetrators of this brutal murder to justice. Suryanarayana leaves behind his wife and three children.