Taliban holding hostage ask Indians to leave

A Taliban spokesman made the demand in a telephone call to AFP from an undisclosed location following the abduction of Surya Narain, who was working as a contractor for Afghan mobile phone network Roshan.

"Taliban leading council has decided that if all Indian companies, engineers and workers in Afghanistan do not get ready to leave the country in the next 24 hours, starting 18:00 pm (1330 GMT) today we will kill this Indian engineer," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.

The purported spokesman also said Taliban council concluded that the Indian engineer was spying for the Americans.

Earlier, the insurgents said the hostage was in good health.

New Delhi's ambassador to Afghanistan, Rakesh Sood, said the mission had not received any demands from the abductors.

"I think this is to be condemned. This innocent engineer is working for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The people who make those threats and those demands are enemies of Afghanistan," Sood told AFP.

Narain was abducted in Sharjoy district of troubled southern Zabul province on the main highway linking the capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, birthplace of the Taliban movement, officials said.