Afghanistan: Twelve Iranian engineers kidnapped

KABUL: Twelve Iranian engineers and five of their Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by Taliban gunmen on Monday in a remote region of Afghanistan near its border with Iran, local officials and the Iranian government said. The men, who were working on a road construction project, were snatched at gunpoint in the Post-i-Road district of Farah province, which borders Iran, provincial government spokesman Naqibullah Farahi told AFP. Tehran confirmed the abduction of 12 Iranians, while the Afghan provincial authorities had earlier said the number was 10. The Afghan embassy in Tehran will press the “Kabul authorities to exercise their responsibilities with regard to Iranian nationals and to take firm and swift action on this kidnapping,” said Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Taliban spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone that the insurgent group had no knowledge of the kidnapping, although the rebels have been responsible for similar abductions in the past.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th,  2011.