HYDERABAD, May 2: The body of an Indian engineer abducted and beheaded in Afghanistan by Taliban militants, was cremated on Tuesday as doctors struggled to save the life of his widow, who had tried to commit suicide.

Officials, relatives and scores of mourners and onlookers gathered to watch the flames consume the body of Kasula Suryanarayan, draped in a national flag, according to Hindu rites in the southern city of Hyderabad.

It was then taken in a procession through the city roads to the cremation ground. Many onlookers wept. Suryanarayana, a telecommunications engineer, was kidnapped in Afghanistan on Friday. His body and severed head were found on Sunday in a field near a highway in the remote Hassan Kariez district of southern Zabul province, where he was abducted.

Meanwhile, doctors were trying to save the life of Suryanarayana’s widow K. Manjula, who tried to commit suicide by drinking disinfectant after learning of her husband’s death. She was rushed to a hospital where doctors pumped her stomach, but her situation was critical, the private NDTV news channel reported on Tuesday.

—AP/AFP