Suryanarayan killed by Taliban

New Delhi, Apr 30 (UNI) The Indian telecom engineer, K Suryanarayan, who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan on Friday, was beheaded by his abductors much before the 24-hour deadline they had set for meeting their demands, was to expire at 1800 hrs. local time (1900 hrs IST) today .

His body was found between Qalat and Ghazni this morning.

A Reuters report from Kandahar 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.'' 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.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 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.

The Prime Minister also talked to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajashekara Reddy and asked him to convey his sympathy and condolence to the wife of the deceased.

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