Afghan leader expresses agony at Indian engineer's brutal killing

New Delhi, May 11 (UNI) Afghan Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Farooq Wardak today expressed his sympathy and agony about the Indian engineer who was recently killed in Afghanistan.

Mr Wardak told Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in the Parliament House, that ''I want to share my sympathy and agony about the Indian engineer Mr Suryanarayana who was killed in Afghanistan.

We are taking necessary action to safeguard the people who are present there''.

In response, Mr Chatterjee expressed concern at the situation prevailing there and hoped that the Government there would succeed in its efforts to contain terror acts.

''All peace loving countries have to act in unison to defeat terrorism,'' the Lok Sabha Speaker said.

Emphasizing that there is no alternative to parliamentary democracy, Mr Chatterjee said the people of India have shown their strong faith and commitment to parliamentary democracy by way of active participation in many elections held so far in the country.

He cited the example of high voter turn out in the just concluded elections to the Legislative Assemblies of 5 States in the country.

''The people of India have used the weapon of ballot to change the government at the centre, six out of 14 times they went to vote in general elelections,'' Mr Chatterjee said.

Replying to a query from Mr Wardak, Mr Chatterjee informed that with a view to bring people closer to Parliament, Lok Sabha Television Channel, first of its kind in the world, started functioning from today. Two 24-hour TV Channels, dedicated for Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha would become functional from the Monsoon Session of Parliament from July 2006 onwards, he said.

Thanking India for all the help that it has been extending, Mr Wardak said that Afghanistan would like to gain from the expertise that India has in many fields, a Lok Sabha Secretariat release here said.

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