Asia-Pacific

Indian contractor kidnapped in Afghanistan

(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-29 16:11

An Afghan cell phone company confirmed Saturday that an Indian contractor is being held hostage by the Taliban, but said it had no word on his fate.

Altaf Ladak, chief marketing officer for the Afghan-registered, foreign-owned Roshan company, said the man was kidnapped Friday in the southern province of Zabul.

Ladak declined to identify the Indian, who worked as an engineer for a Bahrain-based company, al-Moayed, that has been contracted to help expand Roshan's network across this country's volatile southern provinces.

"We are hoping for his safe return and we are working with the government and other relevant agencies to try and solve this as quickly as possible," Ladak told The Associated Press.

On Friday, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, a purported spokesman for the Taliban, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the Indian had been taken hostage and that "higher authorities" within the Taliban would soon decide on the captive's fate.

The engineer was held up at gunpoint as he drove on the Kandahar-Kabul highway in the Hassan Kariez district of Zabul, said Ali Khail, a provincial government spokesman.

Taliban militants have been stepping up attacks against Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces as well as companies involved in reconstruction projects in this war-wracked country.