Indians in Afghan must be in touch with Embassy

New Delhi, Jun 25: India has asked all its nationals working in Afghanistan to be in constant touch with the Indian Embassy in Kabul and also demand security from the private enterprises they are employed with.

This was necessitated following danger to the lives, abductions and subsequent killings of Indian engineers and technical staff working on various projects, both government and private, in the war-torn country.

There have also been intelligence reports that Al Badr, a pro-Pakistan terrorist group, had been asked to target Indians working on various developmental projects in Afghanistan, sources said.

Some parts of the country have recently witnessed a spurt in violence and increased Taliban activities and fresh infighting between US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Taliban.

There are about 2000 Indian nationals working on various projects in Afghanistan.

The government is also in constant touch with the Hamid Karzai administration to ensure the safety of Indians in Afghanistan.

Minister of State for External Affair E Ahamed said the Indian embassy in Kabul also issues updated advisories to Indians on the security situation and the need to take appropriate precautionary measures.

''All Indian nationals in Afghanistan have been advised to be in constant touch with our embassy and consulates in Afghanistan. In addition, on our embassy's insistence, the government of Afghanistan has deployed local police guards at the sites of Indian projects in Afghanistan,'' he said.

Mr Ahamed said the Indian embassy had also advised Indian nationals working with private companies, international organisations and the government of Afghanistan to ask their employers to provide them adequate security.

The Sources said there were reliable intelligence reports that Al Badr, a Kashmiri terrorist group, had been asked to target Indians in Afghanistan. The terrorist outfit had set up small training camps along the Pak-Afghan border. The sources said Indian security agencies had stepped up intelligence in areas, particularly Southern Afghanistan, where Indians are engaged in infrastructure development or humanitarian assistance.

Maniappan Raman Kutty, an employee of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), was abducted and killed by the Taliban in November last years.

The BRO is involved in the construction of a road in Afghanistan that will help boost its trade with Central Asia. The Taliban wanted the BRO to stop work on the project.

Another Indian, K Suryanarayana, a telecom engineer, was abducted and killed early this year by the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan.

The Taliban were demanding that all Indians leave Afganistan.

Meanwhile, in renewed fighting between the ISAF and the Taliban yesterday, more than 60 Taliban terrorists were killed in two separate incidents in southern Afghanistan. While 40 were killed in Uruzgan province, another 20 were killed in Kandahar.

In a related development, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai asked the ISAF to ''reassess the manner in which the war on terror is conducted'' as the death toll in Afghanistan rose to 600 in four weeks.

''It is not acceptable to us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying...In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans have been killed. Even if they are Taliban, they are sons of this land,'' he told reporters at a press conference.

The situation in Afghanistan threatens to worsen as Al Qaeda Deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri asked Afghans to rise in revolt and fight the foreign forces in the country.

''Muslim brothers in Kabul in particular and Afghanistan in general: Stand as one with the mujahideen until the invading forces are expelled and Afghanistan is liberated,'' Zawahiri was quoted as having said.

UNI