Will ensure safety, freedom of abducted Indians: Afghanistan

Afghanistan Foreign minister Salahuddin Rabbani Monday assured newly appointed Indian ambassador Vinay Kumar that Afghan security forces will not spare any effort to ensure the safety and secure the release of seven Indian nationals who were abducted in northern Baghlan province. Rabbani, who met Kumar in his office, also spoke about efforts initiated through community elders to help secure their release.

The seven Indians, employed with Indian power company KEC International, were abducted Sunday by suspected Taliban gunmen in northern Afghanistan.

No group has publicly claimed responsibility for the abduction. But Baghlan Governor Abdulhai Nemati was quoted by local media as saying that a Taliban group has communicated to authorities through local residents that the Indians had been mistaken for government staff.

In a statement, Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said, “At the outset, Foreign Minister Rabbani expressed grief and sorrow over the abduction of Indian engineers in Baghlan province and said that the Afghan security forces will not spare any efforts to protect the physical safety and secure the release of these engineers. He also mentioned that efforts have been initiated through the community elders to help secure their release.”

The statement came a day after Rabbani spoke over telephone with External Minister Sushma Swaraj about the abduction.

“Rabbani in the conversation assured the Indian External Affairs Minister that the Afghan security forces would not spare any efforts in rescuing and ensuring the security and safety of the engineers,” the Afghan statement said.

According to local reports, the KEC employees were abducted by armed men in Bagh-e-Shamal village, while they were travelling to the area where the company has a contract to operate an electricity sub-station.

Governor Nemati told TOLOnews that the Taliban group had moved the KEC employees to Dand-e-Shahabuddin area of Pul-e-Khomri city, which is the provincial capital.

This is the third case of abduction of Indians in Afghanistan in the last four years.

In July 2016, Indian aid worker Judith D’Souza was rescued more than a month after she was kidnapped in Kabul. In June 2014, Father Alexis Prem Kumar, a Roman Catholic priest, was abducted by unidentified gunmen in heart, and released in February 2015.

Between 2003 and 2008, three Indians were kidnapped and released. However, two Indians were also killed after they were abducted.

KEC, a global infrastructure engineering, procurement and construction major, is one of the largest Indian companies in Afghanistan, and is responsible for electricity supply in the country. In 2013, it signed a contract with Afghanistan for the construction of a 220 kV D/C transmission line from a substation at Chimtala to a proposed 220 kV substation southwest of Kabul to supply electricity to the townships of Qala-e-Mohib, Chel Dakhtaran.

Once this project and the substation is completed, electricity will be provided to 40,000 households and businesses, the Afghan government said in a statement.

Incidentally, Afghan Foreign Minister Rabbani’s father, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was the country’s president after the Taliban government was toppled in November 2001. He was also head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, which had been formed in 2010 to initiate talks with the Taliban and other groups until his assassination in 2011.