Family appeals for release of abducted Indian worker in Afghanistan

Ganjimutt (Karnataka), Apr 24 : Family members of the Indian road worker Sarang Mohammad Nayeem, who was abducted in Afghanistan's western province of Heart, have appealed to the Afghanistan Government to ensure his release.

"I got a telephone call that my son has been kidnapped. I have been trying to contact him, but to no avail. I have his mobile number, but when I call it, there is no response. I pray to the government and to the Embassy there, to get my son back. He should be freed," said Sarang Mohammed Hussain, Nayeem's father. Mohammed Hussain said that his son was working in Afghanistan for three years and very recently he had changed his job and joined as a chief engineer.

According to the Afghanistan's interior ministry, two road workers including an Indian were abducted near Herat on Monday.

It said the two workers working for a private logistics firm and their driver were abducted by unknown people in the Adraskan district of Herat on Monday evening. Police suspected Taliban insurgents to be behind the kidnapping.

Adraskan lies on a main highway where Taliban militants and criminals are reportedly active.

Several foreigners and dozens of Afghans have been kidnapped in Herat and neighbouring Farah provinces in the past year, mostly by criminal gangs. Many have been freed after the apparent payment of ransom.

On April 12, a suicide bomber killed two Indian road engineers and an Afghan in southwestern Afghanistan in a deadly attack on road builders.

ANI