Barely 10 days after two BRO engineers were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber, an Indian national working at a security camp in Afghanistan was kidnapped in the western province of Herat on Monday night. Officials said the Indian, identified as Sarang Mohammad Naeem, was not part of New Delhi's rebuilding effort in the country but was employed with a Dubai-based firm providing logistic support for a US security company.Initial reports said Naeem was kidnapped along with a Nepalese citizen and their Afghan driver while returning from Herat town after buying supplies for the security camp at around 9 pm on Monday. Their Toyota Corolla was later found abandoned by the roadside. While Indian officials were trying to ascertain details and had sought passport records of Naeem, sources said Naeem belonged to Mangalore. "The Afghan authorities are investigating the matter but he remains untraced till now. We are keeping a close watch on further developments," said an External Ministry statement. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the incident that occurred in Adraskan district of the Herat Province, an area known for housing splinter militant groups involved in ransom kidnappings. There is a limited presence of Taliban in the area. However, foreign agency reports quoting Afghan officials said Taliban was suspected to be behind the kidnapping. "The national police's initial findings show Taliban have abducted these people," said an agency report, quoting an Afghan interior ministry statement. What surprised officials was that Naeem did not follow basic security protocols and was travelling late at night in an area known for kidnappings of foreign nationals. This, after Indians have been increasingly targeted by Afghan militants in the recent past. On April 12, two BRO engineers were killed and six others seriously injured in a suicide attack in the country's Nimroz province. The engineers were part of an Indian road construction team working on the crucial link road project. In January, one ITBP jawan was killed and six critically injured when a Taliban suicide bomber targeted a BRO convoy working on the same project.
