SPIN BOLDAK, Nov 21: Taliban have threatened to kill an Indian engineer they are holding hostage unless his company stops work in Afghanistan by Tuesday. P.M. Kutty, an engineer with India’s state-run Border Road Organisation, was abducted from his car in the southern province of Nimroz along with his local driver and two guards on Saturday.

Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, said the militants had issued the ultimatum on Sunday evening.

“We will kill the Indian engineer if his company continues to remain in Afghanistan and does not stop working in 48 hours,” he said on Monday by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

Mr Kutty’s company could not be reached for comment and Afghan authorities said they had heard about the ultimatum through the media and were checking the report.

The abduction coincides with a rise in violence, including a series of suicide attacks by Taliban guerillas last week in Kabul and in the south.

Suicide attacks had increased because the militants wanted to avoid losing a large number of combatants in face-to-face fighting with US-led and Afghan government troops, said Colonel Jim Yonts, a spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have kidnapped many Turkish and Indian engineers involved in roadworks in southern Afghanistan.—Reuters