Suryanarayan's body to reach Hyderabad tomorrow

New Delhi, Apr 30: The Indian telecom engineer, K Suryanarayan, who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan on Friday, was beheaded by his abductors evoking strong reaction from New Delhi which asked the international community to join hands to defeat this ''scourge to humanity.'' Suryanarayan's body was found between Qalat and Ghazni this morning. The body will be brought here tomorrow and sent to Hyderabad, officials said here while confirming the killing.

The Afghan authorities have also confirmed the death of Suryanarayan. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajshekhar Reddy has announced a compensation of 5 lakhs to Suryanarayan's family.

A Reuters report from Kandahar earlier said Afghan police today found the beheaded body of the Indian telecom worker. The report quoted a police official as saying ''we found the body, beheaded, in a ditch by a road, about 10 km from where he was kidnapped.'' President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly condemned the killing of Suryanarayan.

President Kalam described the killing as an ''inhuman'' act ''highly condemnable.'' The Prime Minister expressed grief and sorrow on the Taliban's ''inhuman and heinous act of killing of an innocent Indian civilian'' and asked the nation to be united in its fight against terrorism.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told a hurriedly-called press conference that based on the statement made by the Taliban and also on the report received from the site where the dead body of a person was found between Qalat and Ghazni this morning, it would appear that K Suryanarayan had ''unfortunately been killed.'' Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone that Suryanarayan had been ''shot dead'' last evening while trying to escape, the report said.

The Taliban had threatened to kill the hostage unless India withdrew all its workers from Afghanistan in 24 hours. The MEA has confirmed K. Suryanarayan dead and cleared that he was killed while he tried to escape.

Suryanarayan's wife is shocked over her husband's death.