A kidnapped Indian telecommunications engineer was found beheaded in southern Afghanistan today and the Taliban said they had killed him.
The man and his Afghan driver were kidnapped on Friday. Taliban insurgents said yesterday they had taken both men and vowed to kill the Indian unless New Delhi withdrew all its workers from Afghanistan within 24 hours.
A Taliban spokesman said the engineer had been shot dead yesterday evening while trying to escape.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the killing. "The prime minister has...expressed grief and sorrow and has asked the nation to remain united in the fight against terrorism," a spokesman for Mr Singh said in New Delhi.
India has close relations with Afghanistan and is involved in numerous aid and reconstruction projects.
The kidnapped engineer worked for Al Moayed, a Bahrain-based engineering and IT company. He had been contracted to work in Afghanistan for the Afghan telecommunications company Roshan.
An Indian engineer kidnapped last November while working on a road project was later found dead in the southern province of Nimroz. The Taliban said they had executed him to press their demand for withdrawal of all Indian workers.