President condemns Suryanarayan's killing

New Delhi, Apr 30 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today condoled the death of Indian telecom engineer K Suryanarayan, who was kidnapped and killed by Taliban in Southern Afghanistan.

In a message, he described the ''inhuman'' act as ''highly condemnable'', President's Press Secretary S M Khan said.

The President expressed his sympathies to the bereaved family.

He assured all assistance from the government to the family.

Suryanarayan was kidnapped by Taliban in Southern Afghanistan on Friday and killed by his abductors before the 24-hour deadline they had set for meeting their demands was to expire at 1800 hrs local time (1900 hrs IST) today.

The Taliban had said yesterday afternoon that the hostage would be killed unless India withdrew all its workers from Afghanistan within 24 hours.

UNI IP AK KN1418