Kandahar (Afghanistan): Taliban militants have threatned to kill an Indian engineer being held hostage in southern Afghanistan if all Indians don't leave Afghanistan within 24 hours, a spokesman for the insurgent group said on Saturday.
K Surya Narayana, working for a Bahraini telecom and construction business company Al Moayyad, was abducted by the Taliban on Friday evening.
The militia took Narayana away at gunpoint at 5 PM (1900 hrs IST) as he was driving on the Kandahar-Kabul highway in the Hassan Kariez district of southern Zabul province, said Ali Khail, a provincial government spokesman.
India has dispatched a team of experts, headed by Joint Secretary KBS Katoch of the Ministry of External Affairs - to Kabul to secure the safe and early release of Narayana.
The tean is authorised to establish contact with all concerned in Afganistan.
Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who releases regular statements on behalf of Taliban, accused the Indian engineer of being an American spy.
"We warn all Indians working here to leave Afghanistan within 24 hours starting 1330 hrs GMT on Saturday otherwise we will kill him," Ahmadi, who had called up The Associated Press said.
The Indian Government is in close touch with authorities in Afghanistan and the Bahraini company to secure the engineer's safe release, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed.
India's ambassador to Kabul, Rakesh Sood, said the threat was "not a very positive development."
Sood positively identified the hostage as Narayana, a father of three from Hyderabad, in his early 40s, who had been working with Al Moayyad since January.
The firm has been contracted by an Afghan mobile phone company, Roshan, to expand its mobile phone network across volatile provinces in southern Afghanistan.
Sood said that he was in contact with officials from Roshan, the Afghan government and the US military to secure the captive's release.
An official of Surya Narayanan's company said the firm had no information about the engineer.
"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," Chief Marketing Officer for the Afghan-registered and foreign-owned Roshan, Altaf Ladak said.
Surya Narayana's family have appealed for his safe release. His wife, wife K. Mamjula, will meet the Andhra CM.
He is the third Indian to be kidnapped in the last four months in Afghanistan.
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