Taliban kill Indian, govt not to back off

Even as the Taliban asked Indians working in Afghanistan to leave the country, India said it had no intention of cowing before such threats.

Condemning the beheading of engineer K Suryanarayana by the Taliban, the government has decided to strengthen security for its nationals working on projects in Afghanistan and asked private companies employing Indians to do so as well.

"There is no question of India succumbing to threats by the Taliban and its sponsors and it will not step back from its ongoing reconstruction works in the war-ravaged country", Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed said .

Close to 2,000 Indians work in Afghanistan. Suryanarayana is the third Indian to be kidnapped and killed in the country in the last six months.

"Several measures have been taken in the past few months to increase the level of security for Indian nationals working on Indian government-aided projects in Afghanistan," Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told reporters.

The government had reviewed the security of Indians in Afghanistan in January after a jawan of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), working on a road between Zaranj and Delaram, was abducted and killed by the Taliban. Some Indian doctors had also received threats.

Following review by a team which visited Afghanistan, over 200 commandos of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police were sent to the war-torn country in March to provide security to Indians working there.

"The team of senior officials, sent to Afghanistan yesterday to assist efforts to seek Suryanarayana's release, has been mandated to make further recommendations to the government after consulting the Afghan authorities, our embassy and companies employing Indian citizens," Saran said.

The decapitated body of 41-year-old Suryanarayana was found by a police patrol this morning in Hassan Karez area in southern Sabul province where he had been kidnapped two days ago along with his Afghan driver. The body will be flown to New Delhi tomorrow before being taken for last rites to Hyderabad.

How Indian diplomats will tell Pakistan and the US that the Taliban continue to be a threat to all those who are part of the war against terror remains to be seen.

As the Taliban has been criticising Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf too, India cannot hold Pakistan responsible for the attack, even if it believes there is a nexus between the Taliban and some elements in the Pakistan establishment.