NEW DELHI/KABUL, 25 December 2003 — Two Indian men freed after more than two weeks held captive in southeast Afghanistan yesterday said they were none the worse for their ordeal.
“We were treated well,” said one of the Indians, identified by his company as Murali, 22.
Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told reporters the government, tribal leaders and local elders negotiated with the kidnappers who agreed to release the two Indian road workers.
Jalali said the kidnappers had no relations with the ousted Taleban militia.
“The people who kidnapped them had no relations with the leadership of the Taleban,” he said. “They were local people and they had no relations with them although some Taleban leaders claimed responsibility for it.”
Murali and his co-worker Vardhaya, 26, were kidnapped on Dec. 6 when they went to buy chickens in a village near Shahjoy, 280 kilometers southwest of Kabul, in the heart of Zabul province, which has been wracked by violence blamed on Taleban militants.
Taleban militants last week reportedly offered to release the two Indians in exchange for the release of 50 militants held in Afghan jails. Jalali said there was no deal to secure the Indians’ freedom.
Jalali formally handed them over to the care of Indian Ambassador Vivek Katju.
“We are delighted to see the boys back with us, our commitment to reconstruction of Afghanistan is firm and abiding and it will continue,” Katju said.
Murali and Vardhaya were working for Indian joint venture firm BSC C and C helping rebuild the important Kabul-Kandahar highway.
India yesterday thanked the Afghan government yesterday for brokering the release of the two Indian workers.
“They have been released to our officials and we would like to express our gratitude to the government of Afghanistan for working assiduously toward this safe release,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told AFP.
