India today condemned the "barbaric" killing of Afghanistan Ambassador Shaida Mohammad Abdali's brother, saying that the incident was part of a pattern of targeted elimination of those who are opposed to the Taliban and other extremists and their methods.
"We convey our sincerest condolences to the Ambassador. We strongly condemned this barbaric act. Though we don't know who is responsible for this particular incident but there has been a pattern of targeted elimination of those who are opposed to the Taliban and other extremists and their methods.
"The tragic incident underlines and underscores once again the single biggest challenge facing Afghanistan today is terrorism that poses a grave risk to security of Afghanistan and stability of the region," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
Sardar Mohammad Khan, the elder brother of Abdili, was shot dead in a mosque in Kandhar province on Monday, the provincial governor's spokesman Samim Khpalwak had said.
Responding to a separate query on whether there has been any progress in identifying the family of Geeta, a deaf-mute Indian woman who returned nearly a month ago from Pakistan after more than a decade, Swarup said no family has been identified as Geeta's even though many have come forward claiming her to their daughter including a Muslim family.
Now the ministry was releasing a picture of Geeta to show how she would have looked 10 years ago when she accidentally crossed over to Pakistan, he said, adding since there was no photograph of Geeta at that time, the ministry had to work on the picture based on the information given by Geeta about her appearance.
Geeta has been residing with an NGO in Indore for last nearly 50 days after her return.
Asked about newly-appointed ambassador of European Union
to India Tomasz Kozlowski's comments that India-EU Summit will take place in the first half of next year, Swarup said the two sides were working together to identify the dates to hold the next India-EU Summit in 2016.
Noting that earlier, EU had proposed that the Summit could take place in Brussels immediately before or after the G-20 meeting which was scheduled to take place on November 15-16 in Turkey, he said, however, the mutually convenient dates could not be finalised at that time.
Again in Turkey, the invitation was extended during the meetings Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with the Presidents of European Commission and European Council.
"Both sides are now engaged in identifying the mutually convenient dates through diplomatic channels to hold the next India-EU summit in 2016," the spokesperson added.
The last India-EU Summit had taken place in 2012. India-EU ties witnessed some strain after the 28-member bloc had not responded to New Delhi's proposal for a brief visit by Modi to Brussels, the EU headquarters during his trip to France, Germany and Canada in April.
