newKerala.com

New Delhi, April 22: An Indian working for a Dubai-based firm has been kidnapped in Afghanistan, official sources said here Tuesday.

Although reports from Kabul said two Indians had been kidnapped in the western Afghan province of Herat when they were travelling on a highway, sources in the ministry of external affairs said only one Indian was abducted Monday.

The Indian mission is in touch with Afghan authorities and is trying to ascertain the details, officials said.

The kidnapping takes place less than a fortnight after a suicide bomber blew himself up next to an Indian road crew killing two Indian workers and their Afghan driver.

Undeterred by suicide attacks on Indian road construction workers, India has reiterated its determination to continue its assistance to reconstruct the war-torn country.

This is the third incident this year involving Indian workers in Afghanistan that faces a renewed threat from a resurgent Taliban.

On Jan 3, a suicide bomber ambushed a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) convoy, killing two Indians - Manoj Kumar Singh and Desha Singh of the Indo-Tibetan Border Force. Five people were injured in the attack.

According to DPA, two road construction workers - an Indian and a Nepalese - went missing in western Afghanistan and a police official said Tuesday he feared the two were kidnapped by an unknown group.

The workers went missing on the way between Herat city and Adraskan district of the province Monday evening, said Noor Khan Nikzad, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

"They were travelling in a taxi and the police found their abandoned vehicle in Adraskan district," Nikzad said. "We don't know at the moment if the driver was behind the plot or (if) he was also kidnapped along with the two workers."

He said he thought the two missing men were both Indian nationals.