| | Indian, Nepalese abducted in Afghanistan: officials AFP
04/22/2008
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HERAT - An Indian and a Nepalese national working at security training camps in western Afghanistan have been kidnapped, apparently by the Taliban, police and a security firm said Tuesday.
Initial investigations found the pair were abducted by Taliban militants late Monday in Herat province, the Afghan interior ministry said.
The ministry said both men were Indians, but a US-based company providing security for the Herat training camp where the pair was based identified the missing men as an Indian and a Nepalese national.
The Indian government also confirmed one of its citizens was missing.
Sayed Ibrar Hashimi, the Herat security chief for the company, EOD Technology Inc, said the pair and their Afghan driver had been travelling late Monday to the district of Adraskan, which borders Iran.
"Before reaching the district, armed men kidnapped them," Hashimi told AFP, citing information provided by the driver.
The driver said he had been freed but the two foreign nationals were taken away, he said. Police are questioning the driver.
Hashimi said the men were employed by an Indian company called HED. The Indian national was a logistics officer in charge of purchasing and the Nepalese worked on food supply for the Afghan police training camps, he said.
The police spokesman for western Afghanistan, Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, told AFP the pair had called police late Monday and said: "We're in trouble."
"After we sent our police to the area, they had gone missing. We found their vehicle abandoned," Ahmadi said.
"They're kidnapped," Ahmadi said, adding however that police had not been contacted by any group that may have taken the men.
The interior ministry said in a statement that the men had been travelling by taxi to the district when they were kidnapped. "The national police's initial findings show that Taliban have abducted these people," it said.
In New Delhi, the Indian foreign ministry confirmed one of its nationals was missing. "We are investigating," said an official who asked not to be named.
Taliban insurgents have been blamed for scores of such abductions over the past years, but criminal gangs also snatch people to extort ransom.
Two Indian engineers were killed in the southwestern province of Nimroz on April 12 in a double suicide attack claimed by the Taliban.
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